At least 42 people were killed and 58 were wounded Sunday in a bomb attack in northwestern Pakistan, while five major ethnic Pashtun tribes gathered to discuss ways to end the violence believed to be caused by pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

“There is a possibility that the final death toll may be higher as we are still compiling the data from the affected families,” Saleem Gandapur, a local administration official, told AFP.

It was a suicide attack carried out by an 18-year-old teenager in Darra Adamkhel area, near the provincial capital of Peshawar. Officials said that he approached the tribesmen’s meeting on foot and blew himself up, AFP reports.

More than 1,000 tribesmen are reported to have attended the meeting, to vote for the establishment of a tribal force to stop the violence.

Authorities declared three days of mourning after Sunday’s attack, and all shops and schools were closed.

It was the third bomb attack in as many days in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan. According to the Times, a blast killed 46 people Friday in the Swat valley region while attending the funeral of a police officer, who had also been killed in a roadside bombing.

Saturday, two persons were killed and 24 injured by a bomb detonated on a tribal security force vehicle.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said that the attacks were meant to sabotage the operations to bring peace to the lawless northwestern region near the border with Afghanistan.

But despite the extremists’ attacks, the government will carry on its resolutions to fight terrorism and extremism, Musharraf said.

Owais Ahmed Ghani, the governor of North West Frontier Province, said the extremists “will meet their fate soon as the government and the people have joined hands to root them out for the sake of peace and stability,” APP cited him as saying yesterday.

According to the U. S. intelligence, Al-Qaeda militants have established a base in the bordering region with Afghanistan.