Suicide bomb kills at least 50 in mosque
Source: Agencies |
November 6, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
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A SUICIDE bomber struck a mosque frequented by anti-Taliban tribal elders in northwestern Pakistan during afternoon prayers yesterday, killing at least 50 people in one of the deadliest attacks this year.
The blast was the latest to hit religious gatherings and underscored the relentless security challenge to the nation, where Islamist militants have managed to strike at the state and citizens who work against them, despite pressure from army offensives.
The Sunni mosque's roof collapsed as hundreds of worshippers were gathered inside for the most popular prayer session of the week, and many victims were trapped in the debris.
People in private vehicles rushed the wounded to hospitals in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, TV footage showed.
A woman was beating her head, while two elderly men in blood-soaked clothes lay in a hospital corridor.
The explosion occurred in Darra Adam Khel, an area famous for its illegal weapons bazaars and located near Pakistan's tribal regions where Taliban-led militants have been active.
"The blast tossed me up, then I fell down," Mohammad Usman, 32, a schoolteacher with wounds on his head and arms said from his hospital bed in Peshawar. "Later, it was just like a graveyard."
Local government official Shahid Ullah said the mosque may have been targeted because local tribesmen running an anti-Taliban militia have often met there, though not on this particular day.
The Pakistani government has encouraged tribal leaders to set up militias to fight the insurgents, and the Taliban have frequently targeted them.
Ullah put the death toll at 50 and said 80 others were wounded.
That made it the deadliest since September's suicide bombing on a Shiite Muslim procession in the southwest city of Quetta, which killed 65. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that strike.
Several shrines and mosques belonging to rival sects hated by the Taliban have also been targeted this year. At least three such attacks occurred in October.
Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain called the militants "beasts" that are lashing out at Pakistan's crackdown.
"This is part of international terrorism. America, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the main players, who need to work closely and more aggressively to root out this menace," said Hussain, whose only son was killed by militants earlier this year.
Pakistan is in the midst of multiple offensives against Taliban and linked militants in its northwest, including the rugged tribal areas that border Afghanistan.
The blast was the latest to hit religious gatherings and underscored the relentless security challenge to the nation, where Islamist militants have managed to strike at the state and citizens who work against them, despite pressure from army offensives.
The Sunni mosque's roof collapsed as hundreds of worshippers were gathered inside for the most popular prayer session of the week, and many victims were trapped in the debris.
People in private vehicles rushed the wounded to hospitals in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, TV footage showed.
A woman was beating her head, while two elderly men in blood-soaked clothes lay in a hospital corridor.
The explosion occurred in Darra Adam Khel, an area famous for its illegal weapons bazaars and located near Pakistan's tribal regions where Taliban-led militants have been active.
"The blast tossed me up, then I fell down," Mohammad Usman, 32, a schoolteacher with wounds on his head and arms said from his hospital bed in Peshawar. "Later, it was just like a graveyard."
Local government official Shahid Ullah said the mosque may have been targeted because local tribesmen running an anti-Taliban militia have often met there, though not on this particular day.
The Pakistani government has encouraged tribal leaders to set up militias to fight the insurgents, and the Taliban have frequently targeted them.
Ullah put the death toll at 50 and said 80 others were wounded.
That made it the deadliest since September's suicide bombing on a Shiite Muslim procession in the southwest city of Quetta, which killed 65. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that strike.
Several shrines and mosques belonging to rival sects hated by the Taliban have also been targeted this year. At least three such attacks occurred in October.
Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain called the militants "beasts" that are lashing out at Pakistan's crackdown.
"This is part of international terrorism. America, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the main players, who need to work closely and more aggressively to root out this menace," said Hussain, whose only son was killed by militants earlier this year.
Pakistan is in the midst of multiple offensives against Taliban and linked militants in its northwest, including the rugged tribal areas that border Afghanistan.
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