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Pakistan bomb 'kills 17' in Bajaur district market(incl.8 security forces).

Major Shaitan Singh

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KHAR, Pakistan — A teenage suicide bomber targeting the police killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens when he hit a busy town square in Pakistan's tribal belt on Friday, officials said.

Among the dead were the local chief and deputy in a tribal police force recruited by the government to help defeat the Taliban in the northwest. Such forces are frequently targeted by militants linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

The bomber detonated explosives strapped to his chest in a bustling square in Khar, the main town of Bajaur district, near the Afghan border. Bajaur has been one of the toughest battlegrounds in Pakistan's fight against a northwestern Taliban insurgency.

"The death toll has risen to 16. Five of them were tribal policemen," Abdul Haseeb, an administration official in Khar, told AFP.

It was the third bomb attack in two days in Bajaur, after twin blasts killed five people -- including pro-government elders and security personnel -- on Thursday.

The violence highlights the insurgency in Pakistan at a time when Islamabad is under renewed US pressure crack down on militants based on its soil, such as the Haqqani network, blamed for a spectacular assault on Kabul last month.

Tariq Khan, a senior government official in Khar, said the young bomber was on foot and detonated his explosive vest when he reached a police checkpost.

"The local head and deputy of the tribal police were among the dead," he said.

Eleven male civilians were also killed and some teenage boys are among the wounded, Khan told AFP.

It was the deadliest bombing in Pakistan since March 11, when at least 15 people were killed at a similar attack at a funeral on the outskirts of Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest.

According to an AFP tally, around 5,000 people have been killed in militant attacks across the country since July 2007, when government troops raided an extremist mosque in the capital Islamabad, sparking a bloody insurgency.

Doctor Habib Khan, head of the main hospital in Khar, told AFP that 42 people had been brought in with injuries after Friday's attack.

"The death toll may rise. We are trying our best but the condition of some of the injured is very critical," he added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack came two days after Pakistan went on a high state of alert for the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's killing by American troops, fearing a wave of revenge attacks.

Tribal police, who are recruited to help the government fight Taliban militants in the tribal belt, are frequently attacked.

The military conducted major anti-Taliban offensives in Bajaur in August 2008 and February 2009, and has repeatedly declared the district secure.

But militants have still proved able to strike.

Pakistan has lost more than 3,000 soldiers in the fight against homegrown insurgents but has resisted US pressure to do more to eliminate havens used by those fighting the Americans in Afghanistan.

The United States conducts a secretive drone war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants based on Pakistani soil, despite increasingly vocal public denunciations from the government that initially gave its tacit approval to the strikes.

Relations between Pakistan and the United States have lapsed into stalemate since the covert American raid that killed bin Laden last May and US air strikes that inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

Pakistan has shut down NATO supply lines into Afghanistan and last month parliament approved new guidelines on relations with the United States, which included a call for an end to drone strikes.

It remains unclear whether the impasse with Washington can be solved before this month's NATO summit on Afghanistan in Chicago, to which Islamabad has been invited.

AFP: Teenage suicide bomber kills 16 in Pakistan
 
I just realised that since Pakistan closed NATO supplies, these attacks have reduced dramatically. Makes one wonder..
 
Pakistan bomb 'kills 17' in Bajaur district market
May 2012 Last updated at 07:11 GMT

A bombing in Pakistan's north-western Bajaur district has left at least 17 people dead, local officials say.

The blast is reported to have targeted security forces close to a marketplace in Khar, the tribal area's main town. Most of those killed were bystanders.

The Pakistani Taliban say it was a suicide bombing - officials have yet to confirm the cause of the blast.

Bajaur, close to the Afghan border, has seen heavy fighting between Pakistani troops and Taliban militants.

The bomber was on foot and detonated an explosive vest when he reached a police checkpoint, some reports say.

Five of those killed were tribal policemen and one of them had received a presidential award for bravery in fighting militants, reports said.

The local Taliban group, led by Maulvi Faqir, has said that it carried out the attack to target a commander in the security forces who killed two insurgent colleagues last year.

The army has repeatedly declared the area to be secure, only for the militants to prove them wrong, the BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says.

A curfew has been imposed in the area, police say.

BBC News - Pakistan bomb 'kills 17' in Bajaur district market


Deadly blast hits northwestern Pakistan
Suspected suicide attack targeting police in Bajur Agency kills at least 17 people, including security officials.
Last Modified: 04 May 2012 07:10

A bomb attack targeting police has killed at least 17 people in Pakistan's northwestern tribal district along the Afghan border, officials say.

A suspected suicide bomber targeting a paramilitary vehicle struck near a crowded street market in the town of Khar in the Bajur Agency region on Friday morning.

Eight security forces personnel are among the dead, officials said.

Fazal Rabi, a Pakistani security officer who was given a presidential award for his role in fighting the Taliban, was among those killed, government administrator Abdul Haseeb said.

"According to the reports that we have, at least 17 people have been killed and at least 40 wounded. Most of the wounded have been rushed to the local hospital where an emergency has been declared," Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reported from the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

"The suicide bomber is said to have attacked a security post in a busy time in the morning when people were going around doing their ordinary things.

"The suicide bomber is then said to have detonated his device, killing a few security forces personnel including a highly decorated officer who was recently given a presidential award for his fighting against the Taliban. There were innocent passerbys who were also caught by the blast," Hyder said.

Police and security forces sealed off the site of the attack. Reports said that school children were among those wounded, and health officials said they expected the death toll to rise.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, but the Pakistani Taliban have carried out similar attacks in the past.

The attack came two days after Pakistan went on a high state of alert for the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's killing by American troops, fearing a wave of revenge attacks.

Khar is the main town in the Bajur tribal region, bordering Afghanistan, where Pakistan has carried out operations against local Taliban.

Deadly blast hits northwestern Pakistan - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English
 
RIP to the dead...

this just reflects the state of the nation affairs....
 
why cant be nuke few areas of FATA after pulling out all innocent people to get rid of this talibani fitnah once for all
 
^^ How many pakistanis does it take to cry about it?

RIP seems like the death toll increased. Hopefully the casualties will stop. Condolences to the families of the deceased.
 
@somebozo
do you really think that will be the end of lunatics????

the idea of you when implemnted ll create a new wave of more sympathisers and create problems of even higher magnitude...the solution ll be to eradicate extremists ideas rite from the beginning and divert youths from falling in to the booby traps of these extremists..
 
why cant be nuke few areas of FATA after pulling out all innocent people to get rid of this talibani fitnah once for all

Thats like chopping the head off to cure the headache, if i recall this still an insurgency.
 
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