At least 15 people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a meeting of tribal elders in a restive region of Pakistan near the Afghan border.
Dozens were injured in the blast at a council of local leaders in the Orakzai district, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions.
They were meeting to raise a militia to evict Taleban from the region when the attack took place.
Orakzai, near the main north-west city of Peshawar, has been relatively calm.
"We were busy in raising a Pakistan bans Taleban ...
Bomb hits Pakistan air force bus ... lashkar [tribal militia] to evict Taleban from the region when this attack took place," Qeemat Khan Orakzai, a member of the council, told Reuters news agency.
The BBC's Shoaib Hasan, in Pakistan, says the suicide bomber walked into the meeting of 600 people and blew himself up.
A security official told AFP news agency that the suicide attack came a day after armed tribesmen had targeted two militant hideouts.
Pro-Taleban militants on the Pakistan side of the border have been blamed for a rise in attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's government has been courting the fiercely independent tribes to persuade them to stand up to the insurgents.
(BBC)
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