Four children and their parents have been killed in a hand-grenade blast in northwest Pakistan, a day after 12 children were killed by a bomb hidden in a football.
Violence has increased in the region as Taliban fighters have extended their reach.
The grenade exploded in a car carrying a couple and their eight children near Datta Kheil, a district in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border.
Authorities were unsure whether the parents were carrying the grenade, or if it was planted in the car.
North Waziristan is one of the major sanctuaries for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistani border areas with Afghanistan.
12 children were killed yesterday when they were playing with a bomb hidden in a football and it exploded in Lower Dir, a mountainous, district 260km northeast of Miranshah.
The children, five of them girls, found the ball as they were returning from school. Seven victims belonged to the same family.
Dir is part of the Malakand division of North West Frontier Province, where President Asif Ali Zardari this month sanctioned the imposition of Islamic sharia law under a controversial deal aimed at ending conflict with Taliban militants in Swat valley.
But just days after Zardari's move, fighters in Swat intruded into neighbouring pasts of Malakand, closer to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
Western governments have criticised Pakistan for cutting deals, saying the strategys will encourage militants.
Pakistani officials say they are trying to use political means to reduce the violence, but signs are emerging that the government is preparing to unleash the military.
