Bhakkar Suicide Blast Kills 22, Injures PML-N MNA
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 10:59 am Under Pakistan Breaking news, Pakistan News 78 views
MULTAN :A suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded a Pakistani opposition politician on Monday in the latest attack to underscore the threat posed by Taliban and al Qaeda militants.
The attacker blew himself up in a crowd of people at the house of Rashid Akbar Nowani, a minority Shiite MP from the party of former premier Nawaz Sharif, in the town of Bhakkar in Punjab province, police said.
Pakistan’s new civilian government is fighting a wave of Islamist violence blamed on militants in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, and is also under intense US pressure to crack down on the extremists. “It was a suicide attack, the head of the bomber has been recovered,” senior police officer Khadim Hussain told AFP. “The bomber walked up to the MP’s house and detonated himself in the midst of a crowd of party workers, supporters and relatives,” Hussain said.
“We have received 22 bodies so far,” chief of the local hospital Chaudhry Ahsan-ul-Haq told AFP. He said at least 60 people were hurt, including Nowani, who suffered leg injuries.
“His condition is not serious, he is all right,” the politician’s brother, Saeed Akbar, told AFP. Television pictures showed corpses wrapped in cloth and placed on rudimentary beds after the attack, while the blast left pieces of flesh stuck to a ceiling fan. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Officials said the MP may have been targeted because he is from the Shiite Muslim community and lives in an area where there have been frequent sectarian attacks blamed on al Qaeda and Taliban-linked Sunni militants.
The blast came just four days after a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside the house of a senior member of Pakistan’s ruling coalition in a north western town, killing four people.
That politician, prominent anti-Taliban campaigner and Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan, narrowly survived the attack when his bodyguard jumped on the bomber. Militants also fired rockets on Sunday at the family house of the chief minister of troubled North West Frontier Province, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, but caused no casualties.
The attacks have piled pressure on President Asif Ali Zardari to combat the growing threat posed by Islamic extremists. Pakistan is still reeling from a suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on September 20, which killed 60 people. Officials say it was likely in revenge for military operations in the lawless north-western tribal regions.
Relations with key-ally Washington are also in crisis amid a string of US incursions and missile strikes against extremist targets on Pakistani soil.
The Pakistani government on Monday scrambled to deny a US newspaper report that Zardari had admitted the hugely unpopular missile strikes were part of a deal with the United States. “We have an understanding, in the sense that we’re going after an enemy together,” the Wall Street Journal quoted Zardari as saying when asked about the strikes.
“He (Zardari) has never said that they (the strikes) were being done with our knowledge or permission,” Information Minister Sherry Rehman told state television when asked about the interview. “We have been saying that whenever there is some actionable intelligence with (US-led) coalition forces, they should share it with us,” she said.
She also specifically denied that Pakistan had given permission for a ground attack by US special forces on September 3 in which 15 Pakistanis were killed.
|
Loading ...
Pakistan Breaking news, Pakistan News top stories
- This Category's RSS Feed
Something to say about this news story?
Headlines from Pakistan Breaking news, Pakistan News
- Sardar Yaqoob Sworn-in a new AJK Prime Minister
- Israeli Tanks in City Khan Yunis
- Prices of Oil Slaps down in Asia
- World largest ocean divided into 3 Parts for Protection, Established by Bush
- We Work Closely on Gaza Metter: UN to Arab
- Karachi Stock Exchange slaps down
- Admin Office of Political party in Mohmand Agency Blown up
- President Postpones His Afghan Visit
- No confidence motion against AJK PM moved
- Sindh National Front Chief to file Benazir Assassination FIR
Featured Video News
Advertisement
Advertisement
Email Subscription
