Pakistan blast kills at least 41

“This is a shocking development, and the latest wave of terrorism has forced the people to review their thinking,” said Aftab Khan Sherpao, a member of the National Assembly and a former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Another legislator, Farhatullah Babar, said there is a growing sense that peace talks amount to “appeasement.”

It “has backfired and emboldened the militants not only to step up their attacks but also mount an assault on the basic structures of the state,” he said.

Qissa Khawani Bazaar was once the hub of northwest Pakistan’s spice and tea trade. According to historians, travelers going as far as back 1 or 2 B.C. would stop there to listen to storytellers.

The market, which remains a tourist draw, now primarily consists of fruit stands and clothing stores.

According to local officials, the street was packed with shoppers Sunday when the car bomb detonated about 11 a.m. Several nearby buildings reportedly collapsed.

According to hospital officials and relatives, 16 members of the same family were among those killed in the market bombing. The family had traveled from rural northwestern Pakistan to Peshawar to prepare for a wedding. They were riding in the same small bus when the explosion occurred.

There was no immediate assertion of responsibility for the attack. A Taliban spokesman told local reporters that the group was not involved, adding that it does not target civilians. This past week, a splinter wing of the Pakistani Taliban asserted responsibility for the suicide bombings at the Protestant church, saying the attack was in protest of continued U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan.

On Sunday, a few hours before the bombing in the market, a suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles on a house in the northwestern tribal area, killing four suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The officials added that they were still trying to identify those killed, but the area has become a haven for militants who cross the border to carry out attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.

On Friday, in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sharif urged the United States to cease the drone strikes.

“The use of armed drones in the border areas of Pakistan is a continued violation of our territorial integrity,” Sharif said. “It results in casualties of innocent civilians, and is detrimental to our resolve and efforts to eliminate extremism and terrorism from Pakistan.”

In a statement Sunday, Sharif said the attack on the market was carried out by people who are “devoid of humanity and all religions.” He added that “barbaric acts” will “not deter the government’s resolve to ensure peace in the country.”

But Taliban leaders are signaling that they have no plans to meet with Sharif’s government in negotiations, even if he succeeds in eliminating U.S. drone strikes.

In a rare public statement, a senior Taliban leader said Friday that peace talks “would never be successful,” because the group’s goal of imposing strict Islamic law in Pakistan is nonnegotiable.

“We will never move one inch back of our demand for enforcement of sharia law,” said Umer Khalid Khurasan, commander of Taliban fighters near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Talat Masood, a former Pakistani army general, said he fears that the government is sliding toward paralysis as it contends with the violence.