Suicide attack on Journalists’ club kills three in northwest Pakistan

A suicide bomber attacked a club for journalists in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing three people including a woman and wounding 17.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives when a policeman Riaz deployed at the gate of the Press Club tried to prevent him from entering the premises. The policeman was among the four persons including a woman and accountant of the press, Mian Iqbal and the bomber who died in the blast.

‘A policeman tried to search the attacker as he approached the press club's gate, but the man resisted and was able to trigger his explosives, killing the officer and an accountant who worked for the organization’, said Peshawar's police chief, Liaquat Ali Khan.

A woman who was at the site of the attack apparently died of cardiac arrest, said Sahib Gul, a doctor at a hospital in Peshawar where the three bodies were brought.

Seventeen other people were injured in the attack, many of whom were traveling in a bus that passed the press club when the explosion occurred, said Gul.

Bomb disposal squad chief Tanveer Ahmed said most of the casualties were caused by steel pellets and nails stuffed in the suicide bomber's explosives vest.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. The blast damaged the Press Club and blew out its windows. A sizeable number of people were present in the Club at the time of the attack. Several cars parked outside the Club were also damaged. Security forces cordoned off the area and gathered the body parts of the bomber.

The North West Frontier Province information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain was scheduled to address a news conference in the Club later in the afternoon.

After the blast the minister who visited the site said ‘Journalists have played a vital role in our war by exposing the terrorists, so they are on the target list too like mosques, bazaars and security institutions.’

About the security arrangements the minister said, 'We have already taken special measures in view of Muharram but suicide attacks cannot be totally eliminated such incidents cannot be ruled out in future. But we will continue our struggle against terrorists.'

The Peshawar City has been hit by at least seven attacks in the past two months in retaliation for a military offensive launched in mid-October against the militants’ stronghold of South Waziristan in Pakistan's lawless tribal area near the Afghan border. An attack in late October in a market popular with women and children in Peshawar killed 112 people.

- Asian Tribune -