Suicide blast at mosque in Pakistan kills 30
Pastor Dale Morgan
Suicide blast at mosque in Pakistan kills 30
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By RIAZ KHAN
The Associated Press
Friday, June 5, 2009; 11:02 AM
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people and
wounded 40 attending Friday prayers at a mosque in Pakistan's northwest,
violence that came as the country's leaders urged a visiting U.S. envoy
for more aid to stave off Taliban-led militancy.
The attack also occurred as the Pakistani army said it had made more
gains in the nearby Swat Valley, an operation that the army chief said
had "decisively turned" in the military's favor.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast at the
Sunni Muslim mosque in the Haya Gai area of Upper Dir, a rough and
tumble district next to Swat.
Police said a man wearing an explosive vest entered the mosque but was
recognized by some worshippers as a stranger. When they confronted the
man, he blew himself up, said Atlass Khan, a police official in Upper Dir.
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Local police Chief Ejaz Ahmad said the confirmed death toll was 30, but
"there are more body parts, which may make another four to six bodies"
and the final tally could reach 40. Another 40 were wounded, some
critically, Ahmad told The Associated Press by phone.
Pakistani leaders insist they are serious about wiping out militancy in
the northwest, especially in the Swat Valley, a one-time tourist haven
that the Taliban took over in the past two years. Washington backs the
operation, seeing it as a test of Pakistan's resolve to beat al-Qaida
and Taliban militants implicated in attacks on Western forces in
neighboring Afghanistan.
But the generally broad public support in Pakistan for the operation
could falter if militant violence spikes in reaction or if the
government fails to successfully resettle some 3 million refugees from
the fighting.
There already have been attacks in Peshawar and Lahore that officials
say were revenge by the militants for Swat.
Atif-ur-Rehman, a top official in Upper Dir's government, blamed the
Taliban for the latest attack.
"It is obvious. They are Taliban," he told the AP. "We can say it seems
to be a reaction to the offensive in Swat."
Also Friday, four soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in South
Waziristan, according to two intelligence officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the
media.
South Waziristan is a tribal region bordering Afghanistan that some
suspect will be the next site of Pakistani military action against the
Taliban. The military insists the Taliban are attacking troops there to
distract the army from Swat.
Many of civilians displaced from the Swat offensive have been impatient
to return home.
An AP reporter saw hundreds of Swat residents at Got Koto, an area just
outside the valley, on Friday. The residents had heard reports the
government would lift a curfew in the main town of Mingora to let them
go back. But security forces on a main road stopped them, saying they
could not allow civilians back in yet.
"I want nothing from the government. I only want that we should be
allowed to go back to our Mingora city," said Dilawar Khan, 40, as his
four children and two wives stood by him under the shade of a tree. Khan
and his family had been staying at a relief camp in Mardan.
Zubayda Bibi, one of the wives, complained about conditions at the
camps. "We can no longer sit at the camps where there is only dust,
diseases and heat," she said. Even if damaged, "home is better than
anything."
The army launched the Swat offensive about month ago after militants
undermined a peace deal by infiltrating a neighboring district just 60
miles (100 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad.
The offensive has also covered the areas of Buner and Lower Dir.
About 160,000 of the displaced Pakistanis are now living in relief
camps. The U.S. has pledged $110 million to help the refugees and U.S.
special envoy Richard Holbrooke this week announced plans for $200
million more.
In a meeting with Holbrooke on Friday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
asked that the U.S. write off Pakistan's debt, according to a statement
from Gilani's office.
Holbrooke did not directly address the request in a news conference
Friday, but said he would meet Treasury and State Department officials
when he returns to Washington "to see what additional things we can do
to assist Pakistan in terms of its IMF obligations, its World Bank
obligations and its extraordinarily difficult economic situation."
Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said this week that major
population centers and roads leading to the valley were rid of Taliban
resistance. But he said security forces were still hunting top Taliban
commanders and that isolated incidents of violence would likely continue.
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Associated Press writers Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, and Munir
Ahmad, Asif Shahzad and Ashraf Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.