Volleyball field Taliban blast kills 96
Source: Agencies |
January 3, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
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A SUICIDE car bombing that killed 96 people on a volleyball field sent a bloody New Year's warning to Pakistanis who have formed militias to fend off Taliban insurgents in the northwestern region near the Afghan border.
The attack on the outskirts of Lakki Marwat city was one of the deadliest in recent Pakistani history. As local tribesmen prepared for funerals yesterday, rescuers searched rubble for more bodies.
The suicide bomber detonated some 250 kilograms of high-intensity explosives on the crowded field in Shah Hasan Khel village during a volleyball tournament held Friday near a meeting of anti-Taliban elders.
The elders, who had helped set up an anti-Taliban militia in the area, were probably the actual target, police said.
Lakki Marwat district is near South Waziristan, a tribal region where the army has been battling the Pakistani Taliban since October.
The military operation was undertaken with the backing of the United States, which is eager for Pakistan to free its tribal belt of militants believed to be involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan. The offensive has provoked apparent reprisal attacks that had already killed more than 500 people in Pakistan before Friday's blast.
Militants have struck all across the nuclear-armed country and they appear increasingly willing to hit groups beyond security forces.
No group claimed responsibility for Friday's blast.
Across Pakistan's northwest, where the police force is thin, underpaid and under-equipped, various tribes have taken security in their own hands over the past two years by setting up citizen militias to fend off the Taliban.
Shah Hasan Khel village "has been a hub of militants. Locals set up a militia and expelled the militants from this area. This attack seems to be reaction to their expulsion," local police Chief Ayub Khan said.
Mohammed Qayyum, 22, tried to avoid crying yesterday as he recounted how his younger brother died in the explosion. "After the blast, I heard cries, I saw dust, and I saw injured and dead bodies," said Qayyum.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the attack.
The attack on the outskirts of Lakki Marwat city was one of the deadliest in recent Pakistani history. As local tribesmen prepared for funerals yesterday, rescuers searched rubble for more bodies.
The suicide bomber detonated some 250 kilograms of high-intensity explosives on the crowded field in Shah Hasan Khel village during a volleyball tournament held Friday near a meeting of anti-Taliban elders.
The elders, who had helped set up an anti-Taliban militia in the area, were probably the actual target, police said.
Lakki Marwat district is near South Waziristan, a tribal region where the army has been battling the Pakistani Taliban since October.
The military operation was undertaken with the backing of the United States, which is eager for Pakistan to free its tribal belt of militants believed to be involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan. The offensive has provoked apparent reprisal attacks that had already killed more than 500 people in Pakistan before Friday's blast.
Militants have struck all across the nuclear-armed country and they appear increasingly willing to hit groups beyond security forces.
No group claimed responsibility for Friday's blast.
Across Pakistan's northwest, where the police force is thin, underpaid and under-equipped, various tribes have taken security in their own hands over the past two years by setting up citizen militias to fend off the Taliban.
Shah Hasan Khel village "has been a hub of militants. Locals set up a militia and expelled the militants from this area. This attack seems to be reaction to their expulsion," local police Chief Ayub Khan said.
Mohammed Qayyum, 22, tried to avoid crying yesterday as he recounted how his younger brother died in the explosion. "After the blast, I heard cries, I saw dust, and I saw injured and dead bodies," said Qayyum.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the attack.
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