An explosion at what appears to be an extremist training camp for children in Pakistan's Punjab province has killed 11 people and wounded more than 120.

A massive explosion in the town of Mian Channu in the Khanewal district in northern Punjab province leveled at least 25 homes. More people are thought to have been trapped in the rubble.

Seven children and one woman are among those reported killed, and another 12 people are said to be in critical condition.

The blast occurred at the home of a local cleric named Hafiz Riaz, who is said to conduct informal religious training for children. "This was not a formal madrassah but children used to come to get a religious education," a Punjab provincial cabinet minister told AFP.

But the large explosion, the huge blast crater, and weapons, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a suicide vest, and a hand grenade found at the blast site indicate Riaz was running a terrorist training camp. Police detained three men after the explosion.

It is unclear if Riaz is affiliated with the Taliban, which is fighting an insurgency in the Northwest Frontier Province, or with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, or a host of the so-called Punjab terror groups that operate throughout Pakistan and in Kashmir. These groups have forged close alliances with each other as well as with the Taliban and al Qaeda.

The Mian Channu blast highlights the subtle shift in Taliban and allied terror groups' activities to regions outside of the traditional conflict areas of the tribal agencies and the Northwest Frontier Province. Over the past week, there have been six other high-profile incidents outside of those areas.

Just today, police detained 13 al Qaeda operatives in Dera Murad Jamali. The operatives were heading to Multan in Punjab, and were carrying five suicide vest and a bomb. The 13 man team was made up of three Turks, two Saudis, two Kuwaitis, five Afghans and a Pakistani.

On July 11, a group of Taliban fighters killed six policemen and wounded one more in the district of Mansehra in the Northwest Frontier Province. The policemen were killed after the Taliban ambushed their van. Although Mansehra is in the Northwest Frontier Province, it is in a region that had been violence-free until the Taliban moved in in force last spring and established bases in the region.

Also on July 11, police killed an aide to Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and detained two more during a five-hour-long shootout at a madrassa in the district of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab. Two days prior, police detained three Afghans and an Uzbek terrorist in the district. The Taliban started to move into Dera Ghazi Khan earlier this year and conducted several mass-casualty suicide attacks and asaults on police checkposts.

On July 10, security forces killed 10 Taliban fighters during a shootout in the district of Zhob in Baluchistan. The Taliban initiated the fight by attacking a police checkpoint and killing one policemen. Zhob, which is just south of the Taliban-controlled district of South Waziristan, is under heavy Taliban influence. Abdullah Mehsud, the former commander of the Taliban in South Waziristan, was killed during a shootout in Zhob in 2007.

And in Sindh province on July 9, five security personnel were killed in an IED attack near the city of Jaccobabad. The Taliban have increased their presence in Sindh, particularly in the city of Karachi, where sectarian tensions threaten to boil over. Local politicians have warned of the 'Talibanization' of Karachi and the city has been plagued with targeted killings.