 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
 |
 |
|
| 11 killed, 45 injured in Pindi suicide attack |
|
|
|
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
By Shakeel Anjum
RAWALPINDI: A suicide bomber on Monday rammed his motorcycle into an Army Medical Corps (AMC) coaster in RA Bazaar, killing at least 11 persons, including six uniformed and civil personnel of AMC, and critically injuring over 45 others, a security agency source said.
Three passers-by, including a bike-rider and two others in two nearby vehicles, close to the targeted coaster at the time of blast, were also killed. The injured also include passers-by. Twenty-seven of the wounded were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) and 18 to the Military Hospital (MH), the sources said.
Some persons, who witnessed the blast, claimed that the suicide bomber blew himself up in-between three vehicles. Dr Colonel Shabbir, Subedar Zahoor Ahmad, Subedar Muhammad Rafiq and Asif Iqbal (an employee of MES) were among the dead while seven doctors including Dr Colonel Hamed, Dr Colonel Khizar, Dr Major Qamar, Dr Major Samia, Dr Captain Amin, Dr Captain Kashif and Noor Hussain were critically wounded.
Body pieces and head of the suicide bomber have been sent to the District Headquarters Hospital. Soon after the incident, Army and police high-ups as well as the top officers of different intelligence agencies reached the scene, inspected the situation, and started collecting evidence from the blast site.
Bodies were shifted to the CMH, while seven injured were stated to be in critical condition. The blast occurred in front of the main gate of the National Logistics Cell (NLC) near Gate-3, about 400 yards away from the RA Bazaar Police Station, in the highly sensitive zone of the Cantonment area at about 7.22am.
Troops took control of the area and cordoned off the locality. Even media persons were not allowed access to the site that was later fenced, and the damaged vehicles were removed from the scene. Security of the twin-cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad was beefed up as paramilitary forces were deployed at important installations and foreign missions.
“It was definitely a suicide attack targeting personnel belonging to army organisations,” a security officer said, adding that it was a link in the chain of suicide attacks targeting Army and government personnel and installations.
The officer, quoting eyewitnesses, said that the suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into the coaster from the front and blew up with a thunderous bang. “The motorbike used to hit the coaster was loaded with high powered explosive material,” he said.
The people witnessed pieces of the vehicle flying in the air with shrieks and cries of the injured people. There was fire and thick, black smoke all around the scene of the blast. The blast was so severe that it blew up the roof of the coaster and damaged two other vehicles, witnesses said. “There was a big fireball. Some pellets from the bomb hit the wall of my shop and I dived down, because I was injured in the arm in another blast that had taken place almost at the same spot last year,” a shopkeeper witness said.
The bang was heard several kilometres away from the site while windowpanes of dozens of adjacent buildings were broken and a number of vehicles passing on the busy road were damaged.
“It was a horrible scene. I saw mutilated bodies and the pieces scattered all around. Those critically wounded were either lying unconscious or writhing in pain with ear-piercing cries. This will haunt me forever as a nightmare,” Mirza Yaqub, an eyewitness said.
Meanwhile, Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) have started joint investigation after collecting pieces of evidence from the scene to find a track to the terrorist’s network while teams of different investigation agencies including the Special Investigation Group (SIG) of FIA, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and police would probe the matter separately, the sources said.
The intelligence agencies have collected and sent for DNA test pieces of limbs and head of the suicide bomber, the sources said. People in large numbers gathered at the scene to know the details.
This was the second suicide attack on vehicles of defence or defence-related personnel in 70 days. A suicide bomber had hit a staff bus of Hamza Camp on Nov 24, 2007, claiming 30 lives. Two suicide attacks almost identical to the one that occurred Monday hit Rawalpindi on September 4, 2007, one at Qasim Market and the other almost at the same place where Mondayís blast took place. In the Sept 4 blasts around 30 persons were killed.
Meanwhile, an ISPR press release Monday said, “six security personnel embraced ‘Shahadat’ and 38 others were injured including security forces personnel and civilians in a suicide attack in RA Bazaar. Reportedly a suicide bomber blew himself up near a Security Force vehicle at about 7-30am”.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
‘Al-Qaeda, Taliban leaders not in Pakistan’
ISLAMABAD: Strongly reacting to some of the reports of the presence of al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership in Pakistan by the US newspapers and some intelligence agencies, President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday said more |
|
|
Mulla Omar in Karachi, claims WT
WASHINGTON: Mulla Muhammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has fled Quetta and found refuge from the potential US attacks in Karachi with the assistance of Pakistan’s intelligence, the Washington Times more |
|
|
Will PM intervene or will robber barons kill CCP?
By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has warned that it will cease to exist and its actions will become invalid in case the government fails to re-promulgate the Competition Ordinance on or b more |
|
|
Eight militants die in US drone attack
By our correspondent
MIRAMSHAH: Eight militants were killed and two others injured when a US drone hit a house in the Michikhel area in North Waziristan on Friday, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.
Tribal sources sai more |
|
|
19 militants killed in SWA, Khyber, Bajaur clashes
By our correspondents
WANA/BARA/KHAR: Nineteen militants were killed in clashes with security forces in South Waziristan, Khyber and Bajaur tribal regions on Friday.
Tribal and officials sources said five militants were kille more |
|
|
|
Pakistan has nothing to fear from India: Singh
WASHINGTON: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India is ready to resolve all outstanding issues with the country on the condition that it will not allow its territory to be used against its neighbour more |
|
|
|
Qureshi wants result-oriented dialogue with India
MULTAN: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmud Qureshi said on Friday Pakistan wanted meaningful and result-oriented bilateral negotiations with India.
Addressing a press conference at the airport here, h more |
|
|
|
Only 15 pc believe Pakistan is going right
By Gibran Peshimam
KARACHI: Pakistan’s youths are losing confidence in the future and a mere 15 per cent believe that the country is heading in the right direction, while 72 per cent feel economically worse off than a year ago. O more |
|
|
|
Mustafa Jatoi passes away
ISLAMABAD: Former caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi breathed his last at the St Marry Hospital in London on Friday after a protracted illness. He was 78.
He leaves behind six sons and three d more |
|
|
|
Slaughter of animals, NRO beneficiaries begins on Eid
By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will soon announce its strategy to deal with the cases which are going to reopen on Nov 28, a NAB spokesman told The News on Friday.
“The NAB chairman more |
|
|
|
WFP, Rescue 15 attacks’ mastermind arrested
By Shakeel Anjum
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Police on Friday arrested the mastermind behind the attacks on the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Rescue 15 offices in Islamabad.
The terrorist, identified as Jamshed Ahmad more |
|
|
|
Mushahid asks Karzai not to allow use of Afghan land against Pakistan
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League-Q Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Friday asked President Hamid Karzai not to allow the use of Afghan land against Pakistan under Indian designs.
“Pakistan wa more |
|
|
|
No Indo-Pak FMs meeting: Nirupama
NEW DELHI: India on Friday said no meeting had been scheduled between foreign ministers of Pakistan and India in Port of Spain later this month on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( more |
|
|
|
US to tighten control of Afghan contracts: Gates
HALIFAX: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that the United States must tighten control of Afghan development contracts as a first step towards stemming rampant corruption.
“The reality is more |
|
|
|
China has stake in Kashmir: Mirwaiz
News Desk
HELD SRINAGAR: As he plans to visit China, Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday kicked up a controversy by saying that Beijing has a “direct link” with the Kashmir issue, drawing strong obje more |
|
|
|
Clinton favours Indo-Pak dialogue on Kashmir
WASHINGTON: The United States is encouraging Pakistan and India to resume their dialogue to address Kashmir and other outstanding disputes but any solution must come from the two countries, Secretary of State H more |
|
|
|
Competition Commission forces PIA to fly fair
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Silent prayers of many Hajis have apparently been answered as the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has ordered PIA to refund within 60 days the excessive fares charged from the passengers, wh more |
|
|
|
Attack on policemen in Peshawar
By Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: The death toll in the bomb attack on police party in Yakatoot rose to three after a sub-inspector and another cop succumbed to injuries at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) on Friday as the city mourned more |
|
|
|
‘Musharraf funnelling money to improve image’
ISLAMABAD: Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has reportedly funnelled a large amount of money to his former aides in the country in order to improve his image, as he is planning a return to the c more |
|
|
|
Sen Lugar’s wife arrested, charged with drinking, hit-and-run
News Desk
WASHINGTON: The wife of Republican Senator Richard G Lugar was arrested in the suburb of McLean on Wednesday night after crashing into a parked car, and she was charged with drunk driving and hit-and-run, the F more |
|
|
|
briefs...
Bombers kill 23 in Afghanistan
HERAT: Bomb attacks on Friday killed 23 people in Afghanistan, a deadly start to President Hamid Karzai’s second term that underscored spiralling insecurity nine years into more |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
