Timergara Blast - ANP Gathering Attacked - 30 Dead

[TaimiKhan]

PESHAWAR: A bomb attack killed 30 people at a celebration organised by a political party in northwest Pakistan on Monday, with fears the death toll could rise further, police said.


The suspected suicide bomber attacked the open-air gathering in Timargarah, the main town in the district of Lower Dir, where Pakistan waged a major offensive against local Taliban insurgents last year.


“Twenty-five people were killed,” Qazi Jamil, police chief for the northwestern region of Malakand, told AFP. However, DawnNews reported that at least 30 people were killed in the blast.


“Evidence collected so far indicates it was a suicide attack. We are investigating.”


“We are investigating whether it was a suicide attack or a bomb planted in the area. Residents said the blast occurred near the stage,” he added.


The Awami National Party (ANP), the secular political party that dominates government in North West Frontier Province organised the meeting to celebrate plans to re-name the province Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.


The new name honours the Pashtun-majority population in the province and is set to replace a name that dates back to British colonial rule.


“Our party had arranged a thanksgiving day to celebrate the changing of the name after 200 years of colonial legacy,” an ANP spokesman told Geo television.


“People are saying it was a suicide attack. Many people have been martyred, many more have been wounded,” he added, speaking from the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

Rescue workers were searching the site of the blast as people were feared to be trapped under the rubble. The dead and the injured have been shifted to GHQ hospital.

 

[Cityboy]

Rip to innocent ppl

 

[mjnaushad]

Sad day today......

 

[ajpirzada]

i was more looking fwd to zardaris speech today. but who knew how will i start my day

 

[karan.1970]

RIP to the innocent victims.. The senseless bloodshed continues.. Pathetic times that we live in

 

[pak-marine]

Another ill human attack by thugs .. RIP to the dead

 

[Prayag]

Timergara Blast - ANP Gathering Attacked - 30 Dead

Anyone claiming attack??

 

[mehru]

Anyone claiming attack??

No one yet. But it's not difficult to guess. Suicide bombing is TTP specialty.

 

[mehru]

R.I.P to the poor souls.

 

[whydowelove]

PESHAWAR: A bomb attack killed 30 people at a celebration organised by a political party in northwest Pakistan on Monday, with fears the death toll could rise further, police said.


The suspected suicide bomber attacked the open-air gathering in Timargarah, the main town in the district of Lower Dir, where Pakistan waged a major offensive against local Taliban insurgents last year.


“Twenty-five people were killed,” Qazi Jamil, police chief for the northwestern region of Malakand, told AFP. However, DawnNews reported that at least 30 people were killed in the blast.


“Evidence collected so far indicates it was a suicide attack. We are investigating.”


“We are investigating whether it was a suicide attack or a bomb planted in the area. Residents said the blast occurred near the stage,” he added.


The Awami National Party (ANP), the secular political party that dominates government in North West Frontier Province organised the meeting to celebrate plans to re-name the province Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.


The new name honours the Pashtun-majority population in the province and is set to replace a name that dates back to British colonial rule.


“Our party had arranged a thanksgiving day to celebrate the changing of the name after 200 years of colonial legacy,” an ANP spokesman told Geo television.


“People are saying it was a suicide attack. Many people have been martyred, many more have been wounded,” he added, speaking from the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

Rescue workers were searching the site of the blast as people were feared to be trapped under the rubble. The dead and the injured have been shifted to GHQ hospital.

sad to hear.............

but i wonder every one knows wht going in these area's why just they avoid these gatherings..........? for me it stupidity if you go in non sense places (my opinion)

 

[Bingo!]

so sad and sick

 

[afriend]

Taliban claim attack on US consulate in Pak's Peshawar

MIRANSHAH: Pakistan's main Taliban faction on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on the US consulate in the city of Peshawar and threatened to carry out further assaults on Americans.

"We accept the attacks on the American consulate. This is revenge for drone attacks," Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Azam Tariq said over telephone from an undisclosed location.
"We have already told you that we have 2,800 to 3,000 fidayeen (suicide bombers). We will carry out more such attacks. We will target any place where there are Americans," he said.

Militants armed with guns and suicide vests targeted the US consulate in Pakistan's northwestern capital and unleashed carnage at a political rally on Monday, killing 43 people.

The apparently coordinated attacks were the deadliest so far this year in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where the government is closely allied to the US-led war against al-Qaida and in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The ability of heavily-armed militants to get so close to the US mission and other military installations, such as the provincial headquarters of Pakistan's premier spy agency, will raise further questions about endemnic insecurity.

Up to 15 militants armed with explosives and driving in two vehicles targeted the heavily guarded US consulate in Peshawar, a city of 2.5 million on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, setting off multiple explosions.

"The target was certainly the American consulate but they didn't succeed in getting there," Pakistani police officer Ghulam Hussain said.

"One of the suicide bombers blew himself up close to the gate. Police guarding the US consulate started retaliatory fire. More blasts took place. We have recovered unexploded material from four different points," he said.

Three powerful explosions and bouts of gunfire echoed through the area, where a reporter said the attacks occurred at a checkpoint about 20 metres (yards) from the US consulate where heavy thick smoke spewed into the sky.

"We can confirm there has been an attack on the US consulate Peshawar facilities," US embassy spokeswoman Ariel Howard said, unable to provide any details about the nature of the attack, possible damage or casualties.

Pakistani police and army sealed off the area, preventing journalists from accessing the scene and later carried out a number of controlled explosions.

A provincial cabinet minister said four militants, a policeman and another person were killed during the attack.

"They came in two vehicles. The militants were well-equipped. It was a well-organised attack," Bashir Ahmed Bilour, senior minister in the North West Frontier Province government headquartered in the city, told reporters.

"The situation is now under control," he said, following a gun battle between the assailants and security forces.

"The militants were trying to enter the American consulate, but they did not succeed," he said.

It was not clear whether some of the assailants may have escaped.

Peshawar lies on the edge of Pakistan's tribal belt — branded by Washington a global headquarters of al-Qaida — and has been subject to numerous attacks by Islamist militants, although recent months have seen a relative lull.

Around 3,200 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks over the last three years in Pakistan, blamed on militants opposed to the US alliance in the war on Al-Qaeda and against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Earlier on Monday, a suicide bomber attacked an open-air rally in the northwest district of Lower Dir, where Pakistan waged a major offensive against local Taliban insurgents last year.

The attack killed 41 people during a celebration organised by the leading secular political party in northwest and was the deadliest in Lower Dir since the anti-Taliban offensive.

"Forty-one people have been killed and 82 others wounded," Qazi Jamil, police chief for the northwestern region of Malakand, told AFP, saying it had been a suicide car bomb attack.

Residents reportedly said the bomb exploded close to the stage at the political gathering.

The Awami National Party (ANP) said it organised the meeting to celebrate plans to rename North West Frontier Province — Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as laid out in a package of constitutional reform being debated in the federal parliament.

The new name honours the Pashtun-majority population in the province, replaces a name that dates back to British colonial rule and is part of efforts to devolve greater authority to the provinces.

Lower Dir borders Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, where suspected Taliban armed with petrol bombs and rockets torched eight tankers used to supply fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan before dawn on Monday, officials said.

Dozens of fighters launched the attack at Zakha Khel in the tribal district of Khyber, local administration chief Shafeerullah Wazir said.

Taliban claim attack on US consulate in Pak's Peshawar - Pakistan - World - The Times of India

 

[saifoor]

salam friends

i m also from lower dir ....i know that my three relatives from rabat are dead in this blast ...but i need more information because i m in saudi arabia . We are watching here the pak news channel but there is no information about the people who is dead and who is injured ...i wanna know about the people of khall and rabat ...please reply me if anybody knows the names of these people ...i know just only three names amir khan s/o dost mohd khan .....muhtaram zaib khan s/o bakht shah zaib khan and said ghani of rabat ....but i need more information .................thanks to the website

 

[saifoor]

oh i wanna ask taliban......why they kill these people ...are they americans .....i wanna ask to the spokesman of taliban if they wanna destroy americans go to afghanistan or go to america ............but i know they cant because they are afraid ......because they cant fight ....these talibans know that if they will go to afghanistan americans soldiers will crush them ..... Mr spokesman of taliban u are afraid of americans ...if u are a man go and fight like a man

 

[Comet]

salam friends

i m also from lower dir ....i know that my three relatives from rabat are dead in this blast ...but i need more information because i m in saudi arabia . We are watching here the pak news channel but there is no information about the people who is dead and who is injured ...i wanna know about the people of khall and rabat ...please reply me if anybody knows the names of these people ...i know just only three names amir khan s/o dost mohd khan .....muhtaram zaib khan s/o bakht shah zaib khan and said ghani of rabat ....but i need more information .................thanks to the website

Please accept sincere condolences on your loss and please give my condolences to the family of the Martyred.

RIP all those who died.