Pakistan mosque suicide bomber kills 48
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Aug 19, 2011, 7:32:33 PM8/19/11
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Pakistan mosque suicide bomber kills 48
* By Lehaz Ali in Jamrud
* From: AFP
* August 20, 2011 7:09AM
A SUICIDE bomber has hit a crowded Pakistan mosque, killing 48 people and wounding more than 100 during Ramadan prayers, in the country's deadliest attack for three months.
Blood was splattered across the mosque's main hall and walls, while the building's doors and windows were destroyed and its ceiling fans mangled by the blast overnight, according to an AFP reporter at the site.
Ball bearings used in the suicide vest were also scattered across the mosque in Jamrud town, 25km from Peshawar, the main city in the Khyber tribal district where much of the violence in Pakistan is concentrated.
The attack took place as a US drone strike killed four militants in the northwestern tribal area of Pakistan, which is awash with Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks and where US special forces killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.
More than 500 people had packed into the mosque and a senior official from the Khyber tribal district administration, Sayed Ahmed Jan, told AFP the bomb exploded seconds after the main prayer ended.
"The death toll has now risen to 48," top administration official Mutahar Zeb told AFP.
He said the injured had been taken to nearby hospitals while a bomb disposal squad was at the scene, adding that those killed in the attack included four young boys of less than nine years of age.
Earlier, deputy chief of the semi-autonomous administration Khalid Mumtaz Kundi had said 117 people were also wounded in the attack.
"It was a suicide attack. The bomber was wearing about 8-10 kg of explosives and was on foot. He detonated in the main prayer hall."
Witness Gul Jamal Afridi, 46, a local truck driver, told AFP he had been thrown to the ground in the intensity of the blast.
"I saw smoke and fire. People were dying and crying for help, some were running in panic. I saw body parts and human flesh, it was horrible," he said.
Student Saqib Ullah, 24, said he had tried to help those lying near him after the bomb went off, but found most were already dead.
"I saw my uncle lying in a pool of blood. I ran towards him and picked him up to carry on my back, but he had already died," he said.
Like the rest of the Muslim world, Pakistan is observing the holy month of Ramadan in which faithful fast from dawn to dusk.
Iftikhar Khan, an official at the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar told AFP that 40 wounded people had been rushed there alone.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but bombings blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks have killed more than 4550 people since 2007, destabilising the nuclear-armed state.
Friday's bomb was the deadliest since May 13 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a police training centre in a town about 30 kilometres north of Peshawar killing 98 people.
Meanwhile, a US drone fired two missiles, hitting a house in the Shin Warsak area of South Waziristan, part of the notorious tribal badlands Washington calls a global headquarters of al-Qaeda, the Pakistani officials told AFP.
"Two missiles were fired at the house of a tribal elder where local militants were present," one security official told AFP on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to media.
"Four dead bodies have been recovered and two are injured," the official added.
Shin Warsak is 15km west of Wana, the main town of the district of South Waziristan, considered a militant stronghold.
The security official said initial reports suggested a group of local militants linked to Taliban commander Mullah Nazir were present in the house at the time of the attack.
Two other Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed the drone strike and death toll.
The attacks come as Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, is undergoing a fresh wave of ethnic, criminal and politically linked unrest that has left at least 52 people dead in the past 48 hours.
Elsewhere, two vehicles loaded with supplies for NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan, were damaged after a bomb planted underneath one of the vehicles went off in a terminal in Torkham, a tribal town bordering Afghanistan.
"There was no loss of life in the incident," which happened on Friday evening, Mutahar Zeb said.
Most supplies and equipment required by foreign troops in Afghanistan are transported through Pakistan.
Pakistan mosque suicide bomber kills 48
* By Lehaz Ali in Jamrud
* From: AFP
* August 20, 2011 7:09AM
A SUICIDE bomber has hit a crowded Pakistan mosque, killing 48 people and wounding more than 100 during Ramadan prayers, in the country's deadliest attack for three months.
Blood was splattered across the mosque's main hall and walls, while the building's doors and windows were destroyed and its ceiling fans mangled by the blast overnight, according to an AFP reporter at the site.
Ball bearings used in the suicide vest were also scattered across the mosque in Jamrud town, 25km from Peshawar, the main city in the Khyber tribal district where much of the violence in Pakistan is concentrated.
The attack took place as a US drone strike killed four militants in the northwestern tribal area of Pakistan, which is awash with Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks and where US special forces killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.
More than 500 people had packed into the mosque and a senior official from the Khyber tribal district administration, Sayed Ahmed Jan, told AFP the bomb exploded seconds after the main prayer ended.
"The death toll has now risen to 48," top administration official Mutahar Zeb told AFP.
He said the injured had been taken to nearby hospitals while a bomb disposal squad was at the scene, adding that those killed in the attack included four young boys of less than nine years of age.
Earlier, deputy chief of the semi-autonomous administration Khalid Mumtaz Kundi had said 117 people were also wounded in the attack.
"It was a suicide attack. The bomber was wearing about 8-10 kg of explosives and was on foot. He detonated in the main prayer hall."
Witness Gul Jamal Afridi, 46, a local truck driver, told AFP he had been thrown to the ground in the intensity of the blast.
"I saw smoke and fire. People were dying and crying for help, some were running in panic. I saw body parts and human flesh, it was horrible," he said.
Student Saqib Ullah, 24, said he had tried to help those lying near him after the bomb went off, but found most were already dead.
"I saw my uncle lying in a pool of blood. I ran towards him and picked him up to carry on my back, but he had already died," he said.
Like the rest of the Muslim world, Pakistan is observing the holy month of Ramadan in which faithful fast from dawn to dusk.
Iftikhar Khan, an official at the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar told AFP that 40 wounded people had been rushed there alone.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but bombings blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks have killed more than 4550 people since 2007, destabilising the nuclear-armed state.
Friday's bomb was the deadliest since May 13 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a police training centre in a town about 30 kilometres north of Peshawar killing 98 people.
Meanwhile, a US drone fired two missiles, hitting a house in the Shin Warsak area of South Waziristan, part of the notorious tribal badlands Washington calls a global headquarters of al-Qaeda, the Pakistani officials told AFP.
"Two missiles were fired at the house of a tribal elder where local militants were present," one security official told AFP on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to media.
"Four dead bodies have been recovered and two are injured," the official added.
Shin Warsak is 15km west of Wana, the main town of the district of South Waziristan, considered a militant stronghold.
The security official said initial reports suggested a group of local militants linked to Taliban commander Mullah Nazir were present in the house at the time of the attack.
Two other Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed the drone strike and death toll.
The attacks come as Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, is undergoing a fresh wave of ethnic, criminal and politically linked unrest that has left at least 52 people dead in the past 48 hours.
Elsewhere, two vehicles loaded with supplies for NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan, were damaged after a bomb planted underneath one of the vehicles went off in a terminal in Torkham, a tribal town bordering Afghanistan.
"There was no loss of life in the incident," which happened on Friday evening, Mutahar Zeb said.
Most supplies and equipment required by foreign troops in Afghanistan are transported through Pakistan.
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