10 killed in Pakistan suicide attack
A suicide attacker set off a bomb at a security checkpoint in north-west Pakistan today, killing at least 10 people and injuring 52, officials and a doctor said, underscoring the relentless security threat in the country.
The attacker, who was driving a three-wheeled motorised rickshaw, detonated the explosives at a roadblock manned by soldiers and police in the town of Saidu Sharif in the Swat Valley, police official Qazi Farooq said.
Swat was the scene of months of violence last year between Islamist militants and Pakistan’s security forces.
Lal Noor, a doctor at a local hospital, said 10 people died in the attack – one soldier, one policeman and eight civilians – and another 52 were wounded.
The Pakistani military launched a major offensive in Swat early last year after the collapse of peace talks with local Taliban officials – who at the time controlled much of the valley.
The military took back the Swat Valley by mid-2009, but sporadic violence has continued.
No one claimed responsibility for today’s attack, but suspicion quickly fell on the Islamist militants, who have stepped up attacks against security forces in recent days.
The Swat attack came one day after two suicide bombers killed 43 people in near-simultaneous blasts in the eastern city of Lahore.
Friday’s bombings also wounded about 100 people, raising fears of a new wave of attacks by Islamic militants.
The Lahore attack saw two suicide bombers, who were on foot, set off their explosives within seconds of each other near two trucks carrying soldiers on patrol in RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighbourhood with numerous military buildings. About 10 of those killed were soldiers, said police chief Parvaiz Rathore.
Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose and bystanders rushed the wounded into ambulances. Video shot by a mobile phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange flame erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast a short clip of the footage.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but officials suspected the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaida, which have been fighting to destabilise the US-allied Islamabad government.
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