Scores killed in Pakistan twin bomb attacks

[Samoray 165]

Early morning bomb blasts kill at least 73 people, mostly paramilitary recruits, in northwest of country.

Twin bomb blasts targeting a paramilitary training centre in northwest Pakistan have killed at least 73 people, mostly paramilitary personnel, and wounded at least 100 others, police officials say.

A police official said Friday's attack in Charsadda district appeared to be the work of two suicide bombers, though there was a possibility of the second bomb being planted.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, terming it the "first revenge" for the killing of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who was killed by US forces in Abbottabad on May 2.

"This was the first revenge for Osama's martyrdom. Wait for bigger attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the group, told the AFP news agency.

The bombers attacked the Frontier Constabulary fort at Shabqadar early in the morning, attacking the men as they exited the fort to board buses and coaches. The attackers were riding motorbikes, with the first bomber striking at about 5:55am, and the second explosion taking place about eight minutes later.

Some of the wounded were in critical condition and were moved to the Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Al Jazeera's correspondent Kamal Hyder reported.

Nisar Khan Marwat, the district police chief for Charsadda, told AFP that five of the dead were civilians.

"Sixty-five of them are from the paramilitary police. Five dead bodies of civilians were taken to Shabqadar hosiptal," he said. He added that the suicide bomber who detonated the first bomb was in his late teens or early 20s.

Twelve vehicles and around 20 shops were also destroyed in the blasts, Marwat said.

Between one and two kilograms of explosives were used in one explosion, police officer Jahanzeb Khan said. He added that ball bearings and nails were used in the other, increasing the death toll.

'Blood and body pieces'

It is thought that there have not been a great number of civilian casualties due to the time that the attack took place, Hyder reported. The men who were attacked were going on a 10-day leave after having completed their training at the fort.

A vegetable vendor at the site of the blasts told the Associated Press that some of the recruits were seated in white minivans, while others were loading luggage on top of the vehicles.

"There was a big blast,'' he said. "I saw smoke, blood and body pieces all around.''

Relief efforts have been slow, and the local hospital is poorly equipped to deal with the large number of casualties caused by the blasts.

"I was sitting in a van waiting for my colleagues. We were in plain clothes and we were happy we were going to see our families," Ahmad Ali, a wounded paramilitary policeman, told the AFP news agency by telephone from the Shabqadar hospital.

"I heard someone shouting 'Allah Akbar' and then I heard a huge blast. I was hit by something in my back shoulder. In the meantime I heard another blast and I jumped out of the van. I felt that I was injured and bleeding."

"The first blast occurred in the middle of the road, and after that there was a huge blast that was more powerful than the first,'' said Abdul Wahid, a 25-year-old recruit whose legs were wounded in the blasts.

He said he was knocked to the ground by the force of the explosions.

"After falling, I just started crawling and dragging myself to a safer place ... along the wall of a roadside shop,'' he said.

"Why are we being killed? Whose war is this? What is our sin?," asked an elderly man with a grey beard as the body of his teenage son was carried into the Peshawar hospital on a stretcher.

The attack is the bloodiest since Osama bin Laden was killed. Militants in Pakistan said they would avenge bin Laden by attacking Pakistani state targets.

More than 4,300 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan in the last four years.

Pakistani lawmakers are due to receive a briefing on the bin Laden killing from high-ranking members of the military establishment on Friday during a joint session of parliament that is to be held behind closed doors.

In a separate development on Friday, General Khalid Shameem Wynne, the chairman of the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff, cancelled a visit to the United States, a military official told AFP.

The official said that the trip had initially been scheduled for May 22-27, but has been cancelled "in view of the prevailing environment". Wynne called Admiral Michael Mullen, his American counterpart, to cancel the visit, the official said.

http://english.aljaz...2834765706.html

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

There are terrorists in Pakistan. Water is wet. Anything new in this post?

[Samoray 165]

Nothing is new, just confirming that there are terrorists in Pakistan.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Nothing is new, just confirming that there are terrorists in Pakistan.

Pakistan would be well advised to do something about that.

[Vi-Jay 218]

Estimates of Pakistan's stockpile of nuclear warheads vary. The most recent analysis, published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 2010, estimates that Pakistan has 70-90 nuclear warheads.

In early February 2004, the Government of Pakistan reported that Khan had signed a confession indicating that he had provided Iran, Libya, and North Korea with designs and centrifuge technology to aid in nuclear weapons programs, and said that the government had not been complicit in the proliferation activities. The Pakistan Government officials who made the announcement said that Khan had admitted to transferring centrifuge technology and information to Iran between 1989 and 1991, to North Korea and Libya between 1991 and 1997 (U.S. officials at the time maintained that transfers had continued with Libya until 2003), and additional technology to North Korea up until 2000.[37] On 4 February 2004, Khan appeared on national television and confessed to running a proliferation ring.

__________________________________________________________

Nothing over there need worry the rest of the world.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Vi-Jay

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Pakistan would be well advised to do something about that.

They did in a way--refused to learn from their own stupidity/brutality of 1971, seeded and nurtured these as policy-instruments since then, and still didn't learn (other than to scream after they got the bite-backs) when the bite-backs started over two decades ago; the nation's government made its own mess, QED!

[Samoray 165]

Pakistan would be well advised to do something about that.

The Pakistani Government has been chasing Taliban for a long time, the country's population is over 185 million, they are too many in such a small area and Taliban cells hide among regular people.

[Nina~ 431]

What I dont understand is why AQ is attacking Pakistan.. The Pakistanis allegedly had no clue about the raid or anything. So I am not sure why AQ needs to take "revenge" on Pakistan.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Nina~

[Vi-Jay 218]

The Pakistani Government has been chasing Taliban for a long time, the country's population is over 185 million, they are too many in such a small area and Taliban cells hide among regular people.

I wonder if the UBL killing is going to bring some them out from hiding?

Make some of 'em easier to find and kill?

[Saddle Bronc 124]

What I dont understand is why AQ is attacking Pakistan.. The Pakistanis allegedly had no clue about the raid or anything. So I am not sure why AQ needs to take "revenge" on Pakistan.

In the warped mentality common to Pakistan military especially post-1971, and inculcated by them into AQ, failing to protect them is something to avenge.

[Samoray 165]

What I dont understand is why AQ is attacking Pakistan.. The Pakistanis allegedly had no clue about the raid or anything. So I am not sure why AQ needs to take "revenge" on Pakistan.

Some people say that Pakistan knew about the raid but they're just saying that they had no clue for fear of the Taliban and AQ revenge but i am guessing that didn't make any difference.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

The Pakistani Government has been pretending to chasinge Taliban for a long time, the country's population is over 185 million, they are too many in such a small area and the military thugocracy openly helps Taliban cells hide among "regular" people.

Fixxored for accuracy!

[Samoray 165]

I wonder if the UBL killing is going to bring some them out from hiding?

Make some of 'em easier to find and kill?

Sure they're coming out but they will take out thousands of innocents.

Fixxored for accuracy!

That could not be true because, Taliban hates the Pakistani government and military, they're bombing them all the time.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Sure they're coming out but they will take out thousands of innocents.

and the US hasn't killed tens of thousands of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan?

[SMOKE 1,426]

Sure they're coming out but they will take out thousands of innocents.

thats what cowardly terrorist do, attack innocent easy targets. idk???