Pakistan suicide bomber kills 32 at military school

The death toll in a suicide bomb blast at a Pakistani military training school rose to 32 on Thursday, underscoring militants’ ability to strike sensitive installations despite army offensives aimed at uprooting the insurgents.

The attack occurred at the Punjab Regiment Center in the northwestern city of Mardan just as cadets were going through morning exercises. Zeeshan Haider, a local police official, said a teenage boy dressed in the uniform of a nearby school appeared on the grounds and detonated the explosives-laden vest he was wearing.

The blast also injured 42 cadets, several of them critically, authorities said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Associated Press.

The bomber was able to penetrate a heavily protected district that is off-limits to the public. Despite the high level of security, it wasn’t the first time the training center was hit; a suicide bomb attack there in 2006 killed 35 people. After Thursday’s bombing, security forces cordoned off the area and did not allow reporters inside.

Mardan is one of several Pashtun-majority cities east of Pakistan’s volatile tribal belt, where Taliban and Al Qaeda militants maintain hide-outs. In the last two years, the army has launched large-scale offensives in several parts of the northwest, including the Swat Valley, South Waziristan, Bajaur and Orakzai.

The operations have had some success. The Swat Valley, once the nation’s tourism hub, has largely stabilized, and displaced residents of South Waziristan recently began returning to their homes. But the Taliban maintains cells throughout the country and has shown the ability to launch suicide attacks throughout the northwest, as well as in major cities such as Lahore and Karachi.

alex.rodriguez@latimes.com

Times staff writer Rodriguez reported from Lahore and special correspondent Ali from Peshawar.