Thirteen killed, 25 injured as twin explosions rock Bannu

[fawwaxs]

BANNU: Thirteen people were killed and 25, including a senior police official, were injured when two bombs went off in the northwestern town of Bannu on Thursday.

The two explosions took place within an interval of five minutes, police officials told DawnNews. The reported targets of the explosion were the Bannu Police Lines hospital and a police training centre.

Local police chief, DCO Iqbal Marwat was also injured in the attack, officials said.

The second blast came as rescuers responded to the first – a militant tactic seen before in suicide blasts.

Heavy rounds of gunfire followed the explosions as police and military officials tried to take control of the area.

The attack, the second bomb attack on police in as many days, was suspected to have been carried out by two suicide bombers.

DAWN.COM | Provinces | Thirteen killed, 25 injured as twin explosions rock Bannu

 

[karan.1970]

Getting really nasty up there.. Just when it looked like PA had more or less wiped out these scum...RIP

 

[Musafar]

When will it end? over a thousand lives innocently taken and this freak show continues unabated, the bulk of which are pashtuns in the NWFP that have paid the price...yet we cheer and jeer like it's a video game, us against them etc.

It's time the ISI started exploring back channels to tame these guys, as the marginal successes of killing leaders has had little effect on the blowback they seem to inflict on the state apparatus.

Bustling cities like Peshawar, the citizens are constantly on the edge. Groups cannot even congregate. Not to mention the over-zealous checks which has created the incentive for police to make some quick money, and dont even say it doesn't happen, cos its happened to myself - and that isn't helpful when the police need to be protecting the citizens not trying to rob them blind. The only good thing is that the TTP aren't nationalists, otherwise they could've really caused carnage by riding on a crest of pakhtoon sentiment which is spreading through the NWFP like wildfire.

I really think its time we took stock of the situation. We have to swallow our pride and understand as a nation that being bribed by the USA isn't helping our cause regardless of how we wrap it up or sugar-coat it. I know we all deep down wish that we had said "F'it, we're staying neutral. It's your sh1t, deal with it" but it looks like unless we can untangled ourselves from the USA things are only going to get worse in my eyes. Otherwise, this is going to be a prolonged 10 + year war, with a generation of shattered lives picking up the pieces. If this goes on any longer, the HUGE pakistani ex-pat community living abroad along international investors will deem pakistan as a failed state and simply abandon their assets and sell of their investments and we all know the repurcussions that might have. We've already been to the IMF cap-in-hand for a bail out. I for one, would hate to see that happen to my beloved country, so its time we stop acting like blood-thirsty savages and acknowledge that these are our citizens who are killing our own citizens and that consequence of that is detrimental to our country as a whole.

Not a single organization in the history of Pakistan has been able to cause our very institutions to literally crumble, all because we are seen as traitors and stooges of the US.

We really need to think what kind of a path we want pakistan to take, if this continues any longer the nationalists whose voices are getting more and more louder due to the poor security situation will capitalize on their gains and their arguments will win over in the hearts of ordinary pashtuns than those that are being voiced in Islamabad.

Lastly, the biggest hinderence to Pakistans' development is corruption, we need and root-and-branch clear out of corrupt politicians, police officers, FIA staff etc. You can't convince anyone to entrust themselves in you when corruption is rife.

 

[Slides]

1) Taliban failed to deter Pakistan by attacking in Punjab.
2) Taliban resources in Punjab have been depleted to a good extent, thus the focus is shifting to Sindh and back to NWFP as always.