Pakistan : At least 13 people were killed and 32 others wounded on Sunday when a suicide bomber targeted a funeral on the outskirts of Peshawar city in northwest Pakistan, officials said.

The bomber struck in Badabher area of Peshawar just after Khushdil Khan, Deputy Speaker of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, left a cemetery after attending the funeral prayers for a local resident, police said.

Officials at the Lady Reading Hospital said they had received 13 bodies and 32 injured.

Several of the wounded were in a serious condition, they said.

Police said they had found the legs and head of the suicide bomber.

They said most of the casualties were caused by ball bearings packed into the attacker’s suicide vest.

Several vehicles were damaged by the powerful blast.

Security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has witnessed a surge in violence by the Pakistani Taliban in recent weeks.

On Friday, a Taliban spokesman had warned that the militants would carry out suicide bombings against security forces and the government across the country if the family of slain Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is not released.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said last week that authorities had charged bin Ladens three widows with illegally entering and staying in Pakistan.

He said the widows and their children were being held in a house in Islamabad.

Bin Laden was killed by US special forces during a raid in the garrison town of Abbottabad in May last year.