Police: Foreigners among 6 dead in Pakistan blast

At least 32 people — including soldiers and students — were wounded in the blast in Lower Dir's district's Shahi Koto area, local police chief Mumtaz Zarin Khan said. The blast went off near a security convoy heading to the ceremony.

Security forces and girls' schools have been frequent targets of attack for Taliban and other Islamist militants in Pakistan.

Foreigners, too, have been among those killed in a slew of attacks that have rocked the country since October, when the army launched a military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal area. More than 600 people have died in the onslaught.

Lower Dir shares a border with Afghanistan and with the Swat Valley, a region where the army is waging a separate offensive against the Taliban. It also lies atop Pakistan's tribal belt, the lawless stretch of territory where al-Qaida and the Taliban have proliferated.

As part of its offensive against militants in Swat, the Pakistani army has carried out operations in Lower Dir. Local tribes have also set up militias to root out insurgents taking refuge in the area.

Taliban militants have attacked dozens of girls' schools in northwest Pakistan, apparently as a means of imposing their strict version of Islam, which frowns on female education, on local communities. Rebuilding the girls' schools has been a priority for many in the expatriate community trying to improve conditions in Pakistan.

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