KHAR: A bomb blast struck a bus terminal in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing eight people in the sixth bomb attack in as many days to strike the country, DawnNews quoted police as saying.
The bomb exploded in the district of Lower Dir, 200 kilometres from the capital Islamabad. Pakistani troops fought a major offensive to expunge the Taliban from the area nearly two years ago.
Dir district police chief Saleem Marwat said the blast occurred at a bus terminal, close to a car showroom, which was also damaged in the attack.
The Lower Dir administration office earlier said at least five people were killed in the attack, which is close to Pakistans semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border.
More than 4,200 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other extremist networks, which are based in the tribal belt, since government 2007.
Mondays bombing was the sixth in six days. On Sunday, two suicide bombers killed at least 49 people, unleashing carnage at a Sufi shrine in the central province of Punjab where hundreds had gathered for a religious ceremony.
Militants have increasingly targeted Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, in Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Police and security agencies are questioning a suspected accomplice arrested with a suicide jacket near the shrine and whom police said was injured when a grenade exploded in his hand.
The suspect was identified as an Afghan refugee in his mid-teens from the militant fortress of North Waziristan, also in Pakistans northwest tribal belt.
The United States considers the area a haven for al Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan to regroup and launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.
US officials want Pakistan to launch a major offensive in North Waziristan, considered the bastion of groups fighting US-led troops in Afghanistan, but Pakistan says its military is too overstretched elsewhere.
Last Thursday, six people including a tribal elder were killed by a bomb blast in the southwestern province of Balochistan.
A suicide bombing on the same day that targeted Maulana Fazlur Rehman, an Islamic party chief, killed at least 12 people in the northwestern town of Charsadda.
The previous day, another suicide attack aimed at Fazl and his supporters killed 10 people in the northwestern town of Swabi.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/04/blast-in-lower-dir.html
The bomb exploded in the district of Lower Dir, 200 kilometres from the capital Islamabad. Pakistani troops fought a major offensive to expunge the Taliban from the area nearly two years ago.
Dir district police chief Saleem Marwat said the blast occurred at a bus terminal, close to a car showroom, which was also damaged in the attack.
The Lower Dir administration office earlier said at least five people were killed in the attack, which is close to Pakistans semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border.
More than 4,200 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other extremist networks, which are based in the tribal belt, since government 2007.
Mondays bombing was the sixth in six days. On Sunday, two suicide bombers killed at least 49 people, unleashing carnage at a Sufi shrine in the central province of Punjab where hundreds had gathered for a religious ceremony.
Militants have increasingly targeted Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, in Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Police and security agencies are questioning a suspected accomplice arrested with a suicide jacket near the shrine and whom police said was injured when a grenade exploded in his hand.
The suspect was identified as an Afghan refugee in his mid-teens from the militant fortress of North Waziristan, also in Pakistans northwest tribal belt.
The United States considers the area a haven for al Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan to regroup and launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.
US officials want Pakistan to launch a major offensive in North Waziristan, considered the bastion of groups fighting US-led troops in Afghanistan, but Pakistan says its military is too overstretched elsewhere.
Last Thursday, six people including a tribal elder were killed by a bomb blast in the southwestern province of Balochistan.
A suicide bombing on the same day that targeted Maulana Fazlur Rehman, an Islamic party chief, killed at least 12 people in the northwestern town of Charsadda.
The previous day, another suicide attack aimed at Fazl and his supporters killed 10 people in the northwestern town of Swabi.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/04/blast-in-lower-dir.html
