Taliban bomb Pakistan polling station.

[frigidmagi]

BBC

least 30 people have died in north-western Pakistan in a car bomb attack at a school being used as a polling station, police say.

The bomb went off during a by-election in the district of Buner, on the edge of the restive Swat valley.

The bomb destroyed the school, trapping people under the rubble. Two police were among the dead and 15 hurt.

A Taleban spokesman told the BBC they carried out the attack in retaliation for an attack on their fighters.

Six militants were shot dead a few months ago when the local residents turned against the Taleban, in what correspondents say was one of the first incidents of villagers turning against the Taleban in the region.

'Maximum people'

Police said the school was being used as a polling station for a by-election for a parliamentary seat. Voting was suspended after the attack.

"The suicide attacker pulled his car outside the polling station, and asked people to push the vehicle, saying that it had broken down," North West Frontier information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told the Associated Press.

"His purpose was to gather the maximum people around the car. The moment people started pushing the car, he blew it up."

Security forces have been fighting militants in the Swat valley, formerly a popular tourist destination, since last year.

I remember seeing a documentary where a Pakistan general claimed that the Taliban and Osama were the guys fighting for democracy...