Ten killed by mosque suicide car bomb

It was the latest bloodshed in an unrelenting wave of terror that has hit Pakistan.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion fell on the Taliban.

They have been blamed for two weeks of attacks that have killed more than 150 people across the country and appear aimed at forcing the Pakistani government to abandon a planned offensive into the militants’ stronghold along the Afghan border.

The attacker in Peshawar drove an explosive-laden vehicle into the wall of the mosque and detonated the bomb, badly damaging the mosque as well as the neighbouring police station.

The target of the attack in the main city in Pakistan’s Taliban-riddled North West Frontier province was not immediately clear.

The police station was heavily guarded and surrounded by barricades, making it nearly impossible for any attacker to hit it directly.

Television footage showed the upper part of the wall of the brick mosque shorn off.

Security forces swarmed around the area as ambulances arrived at the scene.

A twisted chunk of metal on the ground was in flames, and a small white car’s front section was destroyed.

In nearby Lady Reading Hospital, rescue workers rushed wounded victims through the hallways on stretchers.

Yesterday, a car bomb in Peshawar killed a small child at a housing complex for government employees.

The newest violence came a day after militants launched coordinated attacks on three law enforcement compounds in the country’s second-largest city of Lahore, killing 19 people as well as the nine attackers.

Two officials said initial investigations into the Lahore attacks showed Taliban from the Afghan border region and militants from Punjab were responsible.

Umer Virk, head of the Lahore anti-terrorist police, said: “This was a well-coordinated Taliban operation supported by local groups.”

The violence across the nation has fuelled concerns that the Taliban are forging links with other militant groups in the country, an alliance that would vastly increase the threats to the US-allied government.

Many ordinary Pakistanis are anxiously questioning whether the state has the ability to avert the danger.

The tactics used in Lahore were similar to previous strikes blamed on the Taliban network in South Waziristan and allied militants from Punjab, the nation’s most populous and powerful province.

The methods include using teams of gunmen carrying suicide vests.

The Pakistani government has said the planning for the attacks is often done near the Afghan border, while the foot soldiers are recruited in Punjab. In claiming responsibility for another recent attack, the Taliban said one of their cells in Punjab had carried it out.

Pakistanis have grown less inclined to support the Taliban over the past year, opinion polls have shown, but many are expressing anger and helplessness over how to deal with the strikes.

Saima Ahmed, 33, a bank employee in the southern city of Karachi, said: “The terrorists seem more committed to their cause than the government is to eliminating them. Our inherent weaknesses, corruption, and inability to govern the country are now exposed fully. It’s total chaos all over the country.”

The US hopes that a Pakistani army operation in South Waziristan will help break much of the militant network that threatens both Pakistani and American troops across the border in Afghanistan.

In Lahore, retired police officer Mohammad Sadique blamed the US for the problems.

He said: “So long as the American forces are present in Afghanistan, these terrorist attacks in Pakistan will continue.”

He condemned the strikes because “no Muslim can kill his own brother or sister”.

The Pakistani army has given no time frame for the expected offensive in South Waziristan.

It has reportedly already sent two divisions totaling 28,000 men and blockaded the area. Analysts say that with winter approaching, any push would likely have to begin soon to be successful.