Blast rips through bus
2008-08-12 13:45
Peshawar - A roadside bomb ripped through a Pakistan air force bus in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing 13 people as fighting with Taliban militants raged nearby along the Afghan border.
The violence added to the instability in the nuclear-armed nation, with lawmakers in restive North West Frontier Province also approving the first step in the impeachment of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf.
The blast destroyed the bus and two cars as they crossed a bridge leading to the nearby tribal areas. The mangled wreckage of the bus lay in a large crater, and the scene was spattered with blood, an AFP photographer said.
"Thirteen dead bodies and 15 injured have now been brought here," said Khan Abbas, a police official deployed to Peshawar's main hospital. The dead included a four-year-old girl and four air force officials, police said.
An AFP reporter also counted 13 bodies at the hospital.
A Pakistan Air Force spokesperson said the vehicle was transporting rations from the Badaber base on the outskirts of the city to Peshawar when it was hit by the bomb.
The police chief of North West Frontier Province, Malik Naveed Khan, said the bomb appeared to have been planted under the bridge and had been remotely detonated.
The bomb contained about 35kg of explosives along with a detonator, bomb disposal squad chief Hukam Khan said.
'These terrorists are killing innocent people...'
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but officials said it appeared to be linked to the week-long military operation against Taliban militants in the nearby tribal area of Bajaur.
"These terrorists are killing innocent people but the government will defeat them," provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told AFP.
Helicopter gunships again pounded suspected militant hideouts in Bajaur on Tuesday and officials said that at least six civilians, including an 11-year-old boy, were killed when shells hit their houses.
More than 160 people, most of them rebels, have now been killed in the offensive in Bajaur. The area is a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters who have been trying to blockade the region's main city Khar.
Officials said four foreign militants - a term usually used to describe Arab al-Qaeda operatives - were killed in one of the strikes in Bajaur, but that their identities were still being confirmed.
The Taliban have carried out a string of bomb attacks and suicide blasts targeting security forces in revenge for military operations, leaving around 1 000 people dead over the past year and a half.
The last major attack in Pakistan was a suicide bombing on July 6 at an Islamist rally to mark the anniversary of an army raid on the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad. That blast killed 19 people.
Pakistan's new government has been under major pressure from the United States over its efforts to negotiate with Taliban militants.
But political volatility at home has distracted the coalition government that won elections in February, which is now pursuing impeachment proceedings against Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror".
The blast happened at about the same time that NWFP legislators approved a no-confidence motion in Musharraf, blaming his policies for the violence affecting the region.
- AFP