A blast tore through a security forces vehicle in restive northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing 30 people and wounding dozens more, a senior security official said.

The attack in scenic Swat valley in the North West Frontier Province was the latest in a wave of violence targeting the military since government troops stormed the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.

The blast comes just one day after Pakistan deployed more than 2,000 military troops to the area to bolster efforts to stem the rising violence, which is linked to pro-Taliban militants.

The truck — carrying paramilitary soldiers and packed with ammunition — was travelling on a road outside the valley’s main city of Mingora when the explosion occurred, the security official said. “Thirty people were killed in the explosion including 17 paramilitary soldiers. The damage was high because the truck was packed with ammunition,” the official, who asked not to be named, said. Swat mayor Fazlur Rehman said most of the dead were paramilitary soldiers.

“At least 30 people have died and most of the bodies are completely burned, they are beyond recognition,” Rehman said.

“The blast was so powerful that it destroyed 10 shops and hit a three-wheeler (rickshaw) killing all passengers inside it,” he added.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Security sources said a suicide bomber had detonated his explosives near the truck, but the government said the vehicle’s cargo could have triggered the explosion. “The nature of the blast is not clear and it is being ascertained. There was ammunition in the truck which caused the damage,” interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said.

Most of the attacks in Pakistan since the Red Mosque raid have been suicide blasts that have killed more than 400 people, according to an AFP tally.

The Swat valley was once one of Pakistan’s premier tourist attractions, but the area in the conservative province bordering Afghanistan has become a stronghold of banned group Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM).
The group, led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, has close ties to pro-Taliban fighters who have been mounting attacks on government officials and security forces in the area.

A doctor at a local hospital said 10 bodies had been brought in so far, along with 35 wounded. “Some of the bodies are charred,” Nisar Khan said.

The truck caught fire immediately after the explosion in Nawakilli area on the outskirts of Mingora, and firefighters struggled to contain the blaze, senior police officer Akbar Ali said.

The military said Wednesday that it had deployed the extra troops to the Swat valley in a bid to improve law and order in the troubled region.

A local government official also warned Wednesday that 400 militants under Fazlullah's command had been attacking local security forces.

Local home secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told a news conference in the provincial capital Peshawar that the TNSM group was also trying to seize control of dozens of villages.

TNSM was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in 2002 after it sent more than 10,000 volunteers to fight in Afghanistan against US forces who led an invasion to oust the country's hardline Taliban regime.

Hundreds of Taliban militants fled back over the Afghan border into Pakistan's nearby tribal areas after the fall of the extremists in 2001.