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70 killed in attacks on Pakistan paramilitary
Seventy people were killed on Friday when a suicide and bomb attack ripped through a group of Pakistani paramilitary police as they were about to be bussed home on leave from a training centre.
It was the deadliest attack in the nuclear-armed Muslim country this year and came with Pakistan's military and civilian leadership plunged into crisis over the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden by US commandos.
The explosions detonated as newly trained cadets were getting into buses and coaches for a 10-day leave after their course, and they were wearing civilian clothes, police said.
The attacks took place in the Shabqadar area, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Peshawar, the main city in the northwest region where militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida have repeatedly attacked government forces.
"Seventy people have been killed," the police chief of the northwestern Charsadda district, Nisar Khan Marwat, said.
"Sixty-five of them are from the paramilitary police. Five dead bodies of civilians were taken to Shabqadar hosiptal," he added.
Twelve vehicles were destroyed in the blasts, Marwat said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Pakistani Taliban last week threatened to attack security forces to avenge bin Laden's killing in a US helicopter raid north of the capital Islamabad on May 2.
They were the deadliest attacks in Pakistan since November 5 when a suicide bomber killed 68 people at a mosque in the northwest area of Darra Adam Khel.
More than 4,300 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan in the past four years since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007.
Pakistan's civilian government said Thursday it would review counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States as it comes under growing domestic pressure to punish Washington for the bin Laden raid.
It was unclear if the move was intended as a threat, but it showed the extent of the task facing US Senator John Kerry as he prepares to embark on a mission to shore up badly strained ties with Washington's fractious ally.
Washington did not inform Islamabad that an elite team of Navy SEALs had helicoptered into the garrison town of Abbottabad until the commandos had cleared Pakistani airspace, carrying with them bin Laden's corpse.
The covert night-time raid has plunged Pakistani politics into turmoil with both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are facing calls to resign amid growing anti-American sentiment.
Pakistanis have been outraged at the perceived impunity of the US raid, while asking whether their military was too incompetent to know bin Laden was living close to a major forces academy, or, worse, conspired to protect him.
Gilani chaired a defence committee meeting that decided "to institute an inter-agency process to clearly define the parameters of our cooperation with the US in counter-terrorism", an official statement said.
This would be done "in accordance with Pakistan's national interests and the aspirations of the people", according to the statement, which condemned "US unilateral action in violation of Pakistan's sovereignty."
Washington is pressing Islamabad to investigate how bin Laden and several wives and children managed to live for five years under the noses of its military in a town just 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of the capital.
70 killed in attacks on Pakistan paramilitary - The Times of India
Seventy people were killed on Friday when a suicide and bomb attack ripped through a group of Pakistani paramilitary police as they were about to be bussed home on leave from a training centre.
It was the deadliest attack in the nuclear-armed Muslim country this year and came with Pakistan's military and civilian leadership plunged into crisis over the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden by US commandos.
The explosions detonated as newly trained cadets were getting into buses and coaches for a 10-day leave after their course, and they were wearing civilian clothes, police said.
The attacks took place in the Shabqadar area, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Peshawar, the main city in the northwest region where militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida have repeatedly attacked government forces.
"Seventy people have been killed," the police chief of the northwestern Charsadda district, Nisar Khan Marwat, said.
"Sixty-five of them are from the paramilitary police. Five dead bodies of civilians were taken to Shabqadar hosiptal," he added.
Twelve vehicles were destroyed in the blasts, Marwat said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Pakistani Taliban last week threatened to attack security forces to avenge bin Laden's killing in a US helicopter raid north of the capital Islamabad on May 2.
They were the deadliest attacks in Pakistan since November 5 when a suicide bomber killed 68 people at a mosque in the northwest area of Darra Adam Khel.
More than 4,300 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan in the past four years since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007.
Pakistan's civilian government said Thursday it would review counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States as it comes under growing domestic pressure to punish Washington for the bin Laden raid.
It was unclear if the move was intended as a threat, but it showed the extent of the task facing US Senator John Kerry as he prepares to embark on a mission to shore up badly strained ties with Washington's fractious ally.
Washington did not inform Islamabad that an elite team of Navy SEALs had helicoptered into the garrison town of Abbottabad until the commandos had cleared Pakistani airspace, carrying with them bin Laden's corpse.
The covert night-time raid has plunged Pakistani politics into turmoil with both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are facing calls to resign amid growing anti-American sentiment.
Pakistanis have been outraged at the perceived impunity of the US raid, while asking whether their military was too incompetent to know bin Laden was living close to a major forces academy, or, worse, conspired to protect him.
Gilani chaired a defence committee meeting that decided "to institute an inter-agency process to clearly define the parameters of our cooperation with the US in counter-terrorism", an official statement said.
This would be done "in accordance with Pakistan's national interests and the aspirations of the people", according to the statement, which condemned "US unilateral action in violation of Pakistan's sovereignty."
Washington is pressing Islamabad to investigate how bin Laden and several wives and children managed to live for five years under the noses of its military in a town just 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of the capital.
70 killed in attacks on Pakistan paramilitary - The Times of India
