8 days of bloodshed in Pakistan
2009-10-12 15:03
Islamabad - A wave of suicide bombings, commando-style raids and other attacks blamed on Islamist extremists have intensified in Pakistan over the past 15 months, with no less than four bloody attacks over the past eight days:
October 12: A suicide bomber targets a paramilitary convoy as it passes through a security checkpost in a bazaar in Alpuri town in Shangla, a district neighbouring the north-western Swat valley and the target of a recent anti-Taliban military offensive. Some 41 people, mainly civilians, are killed and 45 injured. The umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement claims responsibility.
October 10/11: A team of nine militants stage an audacious attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi, the garrison town adjoining Islamabad, with 22 people killed in the day-long siege that also saw 39 hostages freed by troops. The dead included 11 troops, three hostages and eight attackers. The TTP movement claims responsibility.
October 9: A suicide bomber rams his explosives-laden car into a bus in a crowded market in the northwest city of Peshawar, killing 52 civilians and injuring more than 100. It is the sixth attack in four months in the city, near to the tribal frontier zone with Afghanistan, where the army has recently launched an offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies.
October 5: Five UN World Food Programme workers are killed when a suicide bomber walks into their office in Islamabad and blows himself up. A man dressed in military uniform breached strict security measures and detonated explosives in the heavily fortified WFP office. Four Pakistani workers and one Iraqi are among the dead. The TTP claims responsibility for the attack.
- SAPA