Death toll mounts to 41 in Bunir suicide car bomb attack: police

The death toll from a suicide car bombing at a polling station in northwest Pakistan has risen to 41, police said Monday, as Taliban-linked extremists claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack on Sunday destroyed a school in the town of Buner on the edge of the restive Swat valley, where voters were casting ballots in a parliamentary by-election, and caused the collapse of a busy market nearby. "Five more bodies were pulled from the rubble of the school building overnight, bringing the death toll to 41," local police official Behramand Khan said. "We are also now in a position to confirm that it was a suicide car bomb attack," Khan said. Shah Dauran claimed responsibility for the attack in a message aired on the station, saying it was carried out to avenge the killings of six Taliban several months ago by local pro-government fighters. "The bodies of our companions were dragged in the streets," Dauran said, threatening more attacks by Fazlullah's forces because those responsible for the deaths of the six Taliban had not been brought to justice.