ISLAMABAD, 9 December 2005 — A powerful bomb blast ripped through a bazaar in Pakistan’s tribal region yesterday killing 12 people and injuring over 40 others, sources said.

The bomb was planted in a hotel in Jandola, the gateway town to the troubled region of South Waziristan, and destroyed nearby weapons shops and other businesses, military and civilian officials said.

“I can confirm that it was a bomb blast,” local administration official Sajid Salim said. “Twelve people were killed and more than 40 people were hurt.”

The area was already tense after a series of incidents, including the reported killing of an Al-Qaeda commander, the abduction and murder of two soldiers and a clash between militants and criminals in which 15 people died.

“It was a terrorist attack, it was a targeted blast at a restaurant in a hotel,” a military official said.

However the official did not say whether the blast, which happened at around 9:00 a.m., was believed to be linked to the other violence in the troubled border region.

Security forces have a heavy presence in Jandola, routinely checking all vehicles and people moving in and out of the rugged area.

Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops in the tribal areas to hunt militants who sneaked across the mountainous border in late 2001 after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, and their local supporters.

But militants continue to fire rockets at government and military installations in the area and the military has carried out major operations in South and North Waziristan.

Also yesterday the bodies of two Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were found, two days after they and two other soldiers disappeared in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, military officials said.

“They were beheaded,” one official said.

The four soldiers went missing on Tuesday night after visiting a market in defiance of orders not to leave their camp in Wana for security reasons.

Two of them were seen being forced into a vehicle, officials said.

Meanwhile, militants in North Waziristan hanged the bodies of local bandits in the street after clashes in which 21 people died, officials and witnesses said, raising the death toll from 15.

Authorities are still searching for Pakistani journalist Hayatullah Khan, who was kidnapped on Monday after reporting on the alleged killing of Al-Qaeda commander Hamza Rabia in North Waziristan on Dec. 1.

Pakistani officials said Rabia, who was allegedly number three behind Osama Bin Laden in the terror network’s hierarchy, died when munitions exploded inside a house.

Locals said he was killed by a missile fired from an unmanned US Predator aircraft operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.