Suicide attack kills 15 at police station in Northwest Pakistan

Taliban militants on Friday once again targeted a law enforcement facility in Pakistan with a suicide car bomber striking a police station in Peshawar, killed 15 people and injuring 16 others.

The attacker detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside the police station in the cantonment of the North West Frontier Province capital Peshawar. The building housed the office of the Crime Investigation Agency. A nearby mosque was also severely damaged.

NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Bilour said 13 people were killed. Three policemen, two women and a child were among the dead, officials said. Three security personnel were among the injured, they added.

"It was a suicide attack. The leg of the bomber has been found," NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussian told reporters at the site of the attack. Seven of the injured are in a serious condition, he said.

"The CIA office and police were the targets of the bomber but many civilians were killed and injured," Hussain said.

Hussian said militants had stepped up attacks in view of the government's plans to launch operations in the Taliban's stronghold of South Waziristan. "But just as we didn't accept pressure from the militants when we were conducting operations in Malakand division, we won't accept pressure now. We will take firm steps to end terrorism," he said.

About 60 to 70 kg of explosives were used in the attack, said Additional Inspector General of Police Shafqat Malik of the bomb disposal squad.
This was a second attack on two consecutive days in Peshawar City which is virtually under attack from the militants for the last three weeks as it was third such attack in three weeks in the city.

An emergency was declared in all hospitals in Peshawar, where authorities have been on high alert for the past few weeks in the wake of a wave of deadly attacks.

At least 11 people were killed and 13 wounded in Friday’s blast, said a police official.

The latest bombing comes a day after four coordinated attacks in Pakistan killed 39 people.

North West Frontier Province police chief Malik Navid Navid slammed the attack as a reaction to military operations against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the semi-autonomous tribal belt and parts of the northwest where radicals have carved out sanctuaries.

The militants have launched a string of brazen attacks in the past 11 days, attacking the United Nations, the army headquarters, police and general public, killing about 150 people, apparently trying to stave off the army assault in South Waziristan.

On the other hand the Pakistan Army refusing to bow to the terrorist attacks has started pounding militant hideouts in South Waziristan tribal agency which is hot-bed of militants and their ally al-qaeda.

Aircraft and artillery struck militant positions in their strongholds of Ladha, Makeen and in the mountainous Shahoor region overnight, hours after killing 27 militants in the region in various strikes.

- Asian Tribune -