 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Eight cops among 15 killed in Islamabad suicide blast |
|
|
|
Saturday, July 28, 2007
53 injured; bomber’s head recovered
Shakeel Anjum
ISLAMABAD: At least 15 people, including eight policemen, were killed and 53 others injured, when a suicide bomber struck a group of policemen in a restaurant following a clash between the Lal Masjid activists and the police after Friday prayers here.
The bomber blew himself up at the Muzaffargarh Nihari House and the Pakwan Centre, Aabpara —some 500 yards away from the Lal Masjid in a busy business centre in a thickly populated area of the capital — at about 5.20 pm.
Around 20 personnel of the Punjab police were sitting in and outside the restaurant at that time. The dead included eight Punjab police personnel with 16 others injured. The dead and injured were rushed to Polyclinic and PIMS Hospitals.
Security agencies recovered the head of the alleged bomber, sources said, adding, “His face is identifiable with the nose disfigured but can be reshaped by surgery”.
The bombing spot could not be cordoned off even two hours after the massacre while the faraway roads were tightly barricaded by the administration.
Inspector-General Police (IGP) Iftikhar Ahmad, DIG Shahid Nadeem Baloch, SSP Zafar Iqbal and officials of the sensitive agencies as well as the bomb disposal squads of the Army, the police and reached the scene and collected pieces of the suicide bomber and of the bomb for investigation.
Eyewitnesses said a young man in white clothes entered the triple storey restaurant and blew himself up among a group of policemen. The blast was so powerful that its bang was heard many kilometres away from the scene, while windowpanes of dozens of adjacent buildings were smashed and tens of cars damaged. Pieces of the suicide bomber’s body were scattered over an area of about 100 yards, witnesses said.
“I was standing at my stall across the road, some 20 yards away from the restaurant, when I saw blowing of everything at the hotel with hew and cry,” a vender running his newspaper stall near the scene said.
Raja Rahim, a shopkeeper close to the restaurant, said: “All of a sudden I witnessed a explosion with a big bang and saw pieces of human bodies flying in the air.” He added that a cloud of smoke engulfed the area and nothing could be seen even at 10 feet distance. “I saw mutilated bodies, human limbs and critically wounded people scattered on the ground and crying at the scene,” he said.
The dead were identified as constables Ammar Ali, 42, Wasim, 25, Natiq Zahoor, 25, Taqiul Hassan, 27, Rafaqat Hussain, Ahmad Hasnain Abdul Waqas, Amjad and another unidentified policeman.
Those among the dead civilians were identified as Tahir Ayub, resident of G-7, Masood Liaqat of Allama Iqbal Open University, Tanveer Ahmad and Muhammad Yaqoob. Body of yet another civilian remained unidentified.
Those critically injured among the 53 wounded were Umar Hayat, Ahmad Ali, Tasvir Khan, Zakir, Haroon and Kamran.
AFP adds: The attack came as pro-Taliban students occupied Lal Masjid during Friday prayers, sparking clashes with security forces. Policemen’s caps and shoes lay alongside body parts at the scene of the blast, an AFP correspondent said.
“It was a suicide bombing. We have found the remains of the attacker and we are carrying out DNA testing,” Interior ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Cheema told AFP.
A senior security official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP, “A man detonated explosives strapped to his body among two rows of the Punjab police constabulary members, who were there on duty because of the unrest at Lal Masjid.”
“I saw bodies flying through the air, some were without legs and some were without arms. I put as many as I could into ambulances,” policeman Mukhtar Ahmad said at the scene, outside a popular restaurant in the Aabpara market.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
CJ says good governance being compromised
By Sohail Khan
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on Tuesday that good governance is being compromised as it is believed that the administration of justice is the sole duty of courts or the legal fratern more |
|
|
Hakimullah dies of wounds in Multan?
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: Reports about the death of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud once again started circulating on Tuesday and this time it was being reported that the militant commander had succumb more |
|
|
MNAs seek solution to Sindh-Punjab water rift
ISLAMABAD: Members of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged for the resolution of the water crisis between Punjab and Sindh, failing which would lead to serious repercussions for the country.
Yousuf Tal more |
|
|
Good governance hinges on change in national behaviour: PM
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that change in the collective behaviour of the nation is necessary for the promotion of good governance. He said that his government believed in streng more |
|
|
NIC made mandatory to get sugar from USC outlets
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Tuesday made it mandatory to produce national identity cards to get a pack of 2kg sugar from the USC outlets.
The ECC met here unde more |
|
|
|
Three provinces to hold LG polls in four months
By Hanif Khalid & Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: A high level meeting here on Tuesday at the Aiwan-e-Sadr decided that the chief ministers of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan would hold local government elections in four months.
President Asif Al more |
|
|
|
Senators condemn attack on Sh Rashid
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Senators on Tuesday strongly condemned the murder attempt on Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members advised Sheikh Rashid to stop more |
|
|
|
PIA obliges religiously; latest being religious minister
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), facing a mind-boggling loss of about Rs70billion, has quietly upgraded two seats of Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi and his wife fr more |
|
|
|
A brigadier without brigade has a history of thrashing
By Umar Cheema
ISLAMABAD: The basher-brigadier of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), who assaulted his professor colleague late Thursday, has a long list of such incidents on his credit as his resume is sprin more |
|
|
|
PAC settles drought money misuse
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: A special committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probing misuse of drought funds worth million of rupees on Tuesday conveniently settled majority of charges against deputy auditor general o more |
|
|
|
NA-55 by-polls
By our correspondent
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has urged all the political parties, including the PML-N, to withdraw from the NA-55 by-polls in favour of Sheikh Rashid.
“ more |
|
|
|
Point scoring be avoided in Rashid attack case: Shahbaz
By our correspondent
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the Rawalpindi incident on Monday had grieved every Pakistani.
He said a joint investigation team comprising federal and provincial agencies including I more |
|
|
|
SC moved against delay in judges’ appointment
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was moved on Tuesday against the government’s delay in the appointment of judges in the apex court and was prayed for directing the government to perform its constitutional duty by more |
|
|
|
‘74 killed in Bajaur operation’
By Hasbanullah Khan
KHAR: Security forces claimed to have killed 74 militants and injured 54 others and wrested the strategically important hilltops and areas from the insurgents during the weeklong military operation in the Mamon more |
|
|
|
Afghan unrest kills US, French soldiers
KABUL: A US and French soldiers were killed in attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said.
The US service member was killed in an improvised bomb blast in southern Afghanis more |
|
|
|
Army called in for today’s Lakki by-election
By our correspondent
PESHAWAR: The government has requisitioned the services of the Pakistan Army to augment the police and civil security forces for conducting the NWFP Assembly by-election on PF-75 Lakki Marwat for which polling more |
|
|
|
Meeting discusses political issues
ISLAMABAD: A meeting held here at the presidency on Tuesday and presided over jointly by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani discussed political and development issues in the N more |
|
|
|
Rashid accuses PML-N of promoting criminal culture
ISLAMABAD: Head of Awami Muslim League, Sheikh Rashid, on Tuesday criticised the PML-N-led Punjab government for promoting criminal culture in Rawalpindi and the province.
Talking to a private TV channel more |
|
|
|
Briefs...
Over 64 dead in Afghan avalanches
KABUL: At least 24 bodies have been recovered and 40 other people are feared dead after avalanches swept vehicles into a ravine and trapped cars in a mountain pass overn more |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
