Suicide blast kills 15 in southwest Pakistan
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday February 17, 7:35 PM *
Suicide blast kills 15 in southwest Pakistan*
A suicide bomber has killed at least 15 people, including a senior
judge, when he blew himself up inside a court in southwest Pakistan.
Dozens of people were injured in the blast, which officials suspect is
linked to a wave of recent suicide attacks in Pakistan blamed on
pro-Taliban militants angry at President Pervez Mushaharf's support for
the US-led war on terror.
The explosion took place in the compound of district courts, also
housing some police offices, in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province
bordering insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan and Iran.
"The bomber entered the courtroom, stood leaning against a wall and
detonated," Baluchistan police chief Tariq Khosa told AFP on Saturday.
Khosa said Judge Wahid Durrani and several lawyers and court officials
were among the dead.
"We have found a severed head with a partly undamaged face and we
believe it is of the suicide bomber," Khosa said, adding that forensic
experts were working on the scene to collect more evidence.
The blast ripped a large hole in the wall, he added.
"At least 15 people have been killed including some lawyers, and around
35 people are wounded," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed
Cheema told AFP.
A doctor at Quetta's main hospital said at least ten of the injured were
in a critical condition.
"The condition of ten injured is very serious, they have severe burn
injuries," said Ahmed Khan. He added other casualties have suffered
multiple broken bones and shrapnel wounds.
The local television channel showed the scene of destruction, with
policemen collecting limbs and pieces of human flesh from the
blood-stained ground of the compound. Broken furniture and debris
littered the scene.
The explosion hit when hundreds of people were inside the compound for
court cases and police inquiries, as well as those collecting driving
licences from an office inside the complex.
In a statement, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz strongly condemned the
attack and said such attacks would not weaken the government's resolve
in fighting terrorism.
"Killing of innocent lives is against Islam and humanity, and will not
go unpunished," he said in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where he
was visiting to console the family of a senior police officer killed in
a suicide attack late last month.
The sparsely-populated Baluchistan province has been troubled by
recurring violence blamed on ethnic Baluch rebels demanding greater
political rights and a share in the profits from the region's natural
resources.
However, Khosa said the latest bombing appeared to follow the same
pattern of attacks which has occurred in recent weeks in other cities
across the country, blamed on Taliban-lined militants.
Cheema said security had been beefed up across the country following the
blast.
Pakistani security forces are already on a high alert in the wake of a
wave of recent terrorist attacks.
The Quetta blast was the 6th attack in the past month. The deadliest
previous attack was in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier
Province which also borders Afghanistan, where a suicide bomber killed
15 people, mainly police officers.
A day before the Peshawar blast a bomber blew himself up at the Marriott
hotel in Islamabad on January 26, killing a guard.
Another bomber killed a policeman in the tribal town of Dera Ismail Khan
on January 29. And a suicide car bomber killed two soldiers in the
remote town of Tank this month.
Early this month an extremist blew himself up with a hand grenade after
a gunbattle with police at Islamabad airport.
Most of the attacks have been blamed on Taliban militants fighting
security forces in the Waziristan tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.