Official: Death toll in NW Pakistan blast may reach 70

2009-03-27 19:20:25

    ISLAMABAD, March 27 (Xinhua) --

A local official said on Friday that the death toll of the suicide blast in northwestern Pakistan's Khyber tribal agency may reach above 70.

    The death toll may rise to 70 or more as more people are buried under rubbles after the explosion ripped through a mosque in Khyber Agency on the Afghan border, political agent Tariq Hayat told reporters on the spot.

    Hayat said a suicide bomber entered the mosque during Friday prayer and blew himself up.

    The mosque collapsed due to intensity of the blast and more worshipers were buried under the rubbles. At least 50 people have been confirmed to be killed.

    No group claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

    Pakistan has gone through a spate of terrorist attacks in the past week.

    One explosion killed 12 people when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bazaar in North West Frontier Province on Thursday.

    Another explosion rocked a police station in the capital Islamabad on Monday, killing one police officer.    

Editor: Fang Yang

Death toll in Pakistan suicide blast rises to 50

2009-03-27 17:16:33  

    ISLAMABAD, March 27 (Xinhua) --

A blast occurred in northwestern Pakistan's Khyber tribal agency on Friday, and the death toll has risen to at least 50 people, local television reported.

    The blast took place near a mosque in Khyber Agency on the Afghan border when local people were praying.

    It was a suicide attack and at least 50 people were killed, political agent Tariq Hayat told reporters.

    Pakistan has gone through a spate of terrorist attacks in the past week.

    One explosion killed 12 people when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bazaar in North West Frontier Province on Thursday.

    Another explosion rocked a police station in the capital Islamabad on Monday, killing one police officer.

Editor: Pliny

Blast heard in NW Pakistan

2009-03-26 22:12:22  

    ISLAMABAD, March 26 (Xinhua) --

A blast was heard in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, local TV channels reported.

    A powerful explosion was reported to have taken place near the Deputy Superintendent of Police office in tehsil Shabqadar of North West Frontier Province, according to the Geo News TV channel.

    As a result, two policemen suffered injuries, reported the Geo News.

    The private DAWN NEWS TV channel report said four police officials were injured in the blast.

    No group claimed responsibility for the explosion.

    The explosion came just hours after another explosion occurred in a hotel in Jandola Bazaar in Tank District of North West Frontier Province.

    At least six people were killed and 20 others injured in the suicide blast.

Editor: Yan

Suicide attack kills 48 at Pakistani mosque

By RIAZ KHAN Associated Press Writer

Mar 27, 2009, 11:03 AM EDT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) --

A suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers attending Friday prayers near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 people and injuring scores more, in the bloodiest attack in Pakistan this year.

The bomber struck at the climax of the service, as the mosque leader was starting the communal prayer, witnesses said.

"The bomb went off with a big bang," said Nadir Shah, a local paramilitary solider attending the mosque. "I felt it was the end of everything. Sometime later when I opened my eyes, I was lying among dead bodies."

The blast in the fabled Khyber Pass came hours before President Barack Obama unveiled a revised strategy to "disrupt, defeat and dismantle" the al-Qaida and the Taliban operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan's northwest.

A government official accused (Pakistani Taliban fighters) of carrying out the bombing in revenge for a recent offensive aimed in part at protecting the major supply route for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan that passes in front of the mosque. Several of the dead were local security officers who were praying there, officials said.

Rising violence in Pakistan is fueling doubts about the pro-Western government's ability to counter Taliban fighters  also blamed for attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.

The bomber hit the mosque, a popular stop for travelers motoring between Pakistan and Afghanistan, when about 250 people were attending Friday prayers, said Hayat.

Television footage showed scores of residents and police officers digging frantically with their hands through the ruins of the white-walled mosque, whose roof collapsed in the explosion.

Rescuers hauled bodies covered in dust and blood on blankets and scarves toward ambulances and private cars waiting to take them to hospital. Crowds of anguished women waited in the background, hoping for news of loved-ones.

Hayat said rescuers had pulled 48 bodies from the rubble and predicted the toll would likely rise further. Another 80 people were injured, he said. Several police officers who had been manning a nearby checkpoint were reportedly among the victims.

The mosque in a rocky valley near the town of Jamrud lies on the main road along which trucks carry vital supplies to the expanding U.S.-led force in Afghanistan.

Pakistani Taliban fighters have carried out a string of attacks on both trucks and transport depots along the route in recent months, destroying scores of military vehicles, including Humvees, and raising doubts about the reliability of the supply line.

The area has also been beset by feuds between rival tribal groups - some loosely allied with the government, others close to the Taliban - which have included suicide bombings and attacks on mosques, though none so deadly as Friday's blast.

Frustrated at Pakistani government's failure to gain control of the border belt, the U.S. has carried out an intense campaign of missile strikes into the region since last year.

President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday reiterated Pakistan's opposition to the strikes, apparently carried out by unmanned CIA aircraft. The government says the attacks feed anti-American feeling and undermine its own effort to isolate extremists.

"We hope Obama is a name for change," Zardari told reporters in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, a region that some have speculated will be the next target of the drone attacks.

Zardari also urged Obama to take a "regional approach" as part of his new strategy for tackling extremism and terrorism, a change Pakistani officials hope would leave them shouldering less of the blame for the Taliban's resurgence.

The Afghan intelligence chief on Thursday accused Pakistan's powerful military spy service of secretly aiding the Taliban fighters- a charge vehemently denied in Islamabad.

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Associated Press writers Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.