A suicide bomber blew himself up in a hospital in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 23 people.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A suicide bomber killed 23 people at a hospital in northwest Pakistan Tuesday, highlighting the militant challenge facing the government after the resignation of Pervez Musharraf.

In other violence in the wake of the US-backed president’s decision to bow out on Monday, five soldiers and 13 Taliban militants were killed in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The suicide attack happened as Shiite Muslims gathered to protest over the death of a man in a suspected sectarian attack in the troubled town of Dera Ismail Khan, said North West Frontier Province police chief Malik Naveed Khan.

“There are 23 confirmed dead and up to 20 wounded. We have found the legs of the suspected suicide bomber,” Khan told private Geo television, adding that tensions were high in the area after the blast.