At least seven people were killed after an explosion at a peace rally in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday.
Initial reports also indicate that 20 others were injured when the blast took place as the Swat Peace Rally had been going on at Kabal Town in the Swat district, a Dawn report said, citing district officials.
After expressing doubts, officials later confirmed that the blast had been due to a suicide attack.
"The attacker ... detonated his explosive vest, killing seven people, including four police officers, and injuring more than 20 others," Swat's Deputy Inspector General of Police, Fida Hussain, told news agency AFP.
However, no group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, which Hussain said had taken place at a busy intersection near the Kabal Police Station in Swat.
As a result, several of the wounded are now in critical condition.
While the injured were shifted to the nearby Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital for treatment, security personnel cordoned off the area and launched a search operation, the Dawn report added.
The blast has also spread panic among the large crowds that had gathered for the peace rally, in which the speakers condemned the resurgence of terrorism in Swat and demanded that the Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan government ensure lasting peace.
Members of the Swat Peace Rally also said that their movement had a single agenda: the restoration of peace and the elimination of terrorism from the region.
In that regard, it also criticised the authorities for what it described as action against peaceful citizens while terrorists continued to operate in the mountainous regions of Swat.
This comes after a spike in such attacks at KP over the past few months, where authorities are fighting a growing insurgency by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Sunday also saw an IED blast near the Peshawar-Islamabad motorway toll plaza injuring two policemen Peshawar earlier, while nine policemen died after a July 31 attack on a police checkpost in Hangu.
