Pakistani officials look at victims of a suicide bombing in Bannu, Pakistan Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. Two suicide bombers struck outside a police complex in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing 15 people and underscoring the relentless security threat despite army operations and U.S. missile strikes against al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Two explosions, at least one of which was caused by a suicide bomber, went off in quick succession outside a police training centre in Bannu just as a patrol headed by local District Police Officer Iqbal Marwat was returning, said officials.
“Iqbal Marwat is seriously injured. We are trying to arrange a helicopter to evacuate him to Peshawar ... there are 15 dead,” a doctor told AFP over the telephone from the local hospital. Eight policemen, a child and six civilians had been killed, the doctor told AFP, having adjusted an earlier toll of 12 policemen. He said another 24 people, including two children, were brought in wounded, and four of them were in critical condition.
There were scenes of panic in the hospital as medics struggled to cope with the numbers of victims, said the doctor. An AFP photographer said a curfew was imposed in Bannu after the attacks. “There were two blasts. The first one was near the gate. The second was a suicide attack. We have confirmed reports it was a suicide attack,” said Sardar Abbas, the city’s senior administrator, and put the death toll at 13.
However, the APP news agency, citing sources, described both attacks as suicide bombings. The agency’s sources said the bombers detonated explosives strapped to their bodies as they were being searched by police at the checkpost ahead of the main gate of the police lines.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attacks, which were carried out outside a gate to the police complex, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani have condemned the attacks. Zardari said such “cowardly acts” would not deter the government’s resolve to root out terrorism.
Gilani ordered the authorities to provide the best medical facilities to those injured. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber targeted a police patrol and killed 18 people in Khyber Agency.
A group of militants attacked soldiers leading a rescue team to the site of a crashed military Cobra helicopter in the same district, killing a senior army commander and wounding two other officers. agencies
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