Appearing from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Muzaffarabad & Quetta

Saturday, November 14, 2009, Zhul-Q'ada 25, 1430

NWFP rocked
17 dead, 80 injured in two blasts
Governor, CM condemn

Tariq Saeed

Peshawar—Two powerful suicide explosions one at the provincial headquarters of a sensitive agency in Peshawar and other at a police station in Bannu Friday morning left at least 17 people dead and over eighty others wounded most of them seriously. Those killed include a number of security men as more than three dozens men in uniform sustained injuries in the two blasts.

The entire city of Peshawar was literally shaken at 6.42 in the morning as a suicide bomber rammed his explosive laden vehicle into the security check post of the office of a sensitive agency at the highly guarded Khyber road which is surrounded by the Governor House Peshawar, the Chief Minister House Corps Commander House , civil secretariat, IG P House, Speaker House and number of offices of the important organizations. It was also reported that the security men at the check post resorted to firing on the suicide bomber before he detonated his explosive laden vehicle at the check post.

While the huge explosion which was heard within the radius of up to 30 kilometres and the smoke billowing in the sky could be seen from 20 kilometers distance, played hell in the area. A big portion of the sensitive agency fortress like office was razed to ground while window panes of the buildings within three kilometers were broken.

The army and the other security forces immediately cordoned off the whole area and denied entry to any body including the media men. The rescue teams, higher authorities and the ambulances including those of the Edhi and CMH besides fire brigade rushed to the site of the blast which occurred minutes before the heavy traffic of scores of leading schools of Peshawar on nearby Warsak road , crosses busiest chowk.

The victims were shifted to nearest Combined Military Hospital (CMH) and the city’s main the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) where emergency was declared. LRH received four dead bodies while three more succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Like wise three dead bodies were listed in the CMH. Both LRH and the CMH received 31 and 29 injured respectively.

The Inter Services Public Relations sources confirmed to this scribe that out of 10 killed in the Friday’s explosion were the military men ( believed to be the personnel of the sensitive agency as well as the security men). The ISPR sources also confirmed that 29 persons were admitted to CMH which were mostly security personnel while LRH also had few men in uniform who were later shifted through army ambulances to the CMH. The LRH sources said out of 10 critical injured two were the security men.

The deadly blast badly terrified almost every citizen of Peshawar and there was hardly a house where the people did not get panicky and came out of the house. Scores of schools and colleges at the nearest Warsak road were immediately closed down and the students who managed to reach the respective institutions were sent home. The busy Khyber road, main link between the city and rest of the areas including cantonment, university town and Hayatabad were closed down immediately as it presented a look of rubbles as the compound walls of almost all the buildings near the site of the blast were collapsed

While owing to security reasons and sensitive nature of the blast, AIG bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), and other authorities were not allowed to share information with the media, the IG NWFP Malik Naveed asserted the explosive material weighed around 200 kg while some of the BDS officials apprehended that explosive material upto 400 kg was used in the blast.

In the meanwhile the rescue operation of the Peshawar blast was in progress yet another suicide explosion at a Police Station in Bakka Khel area of Bannu District wreaked havoc.

A suicide bomber, reportedly targeted police station Bakakhel, some twenty kilometers Bannu and bordering North Waziristan Agency, by exploding his explosive-laden mini truck with the building killing as many as seven people. Those killed included five policemen and FC personnel while 25 others sustained serious injuries. Those martyred were identified as Constables Wakeel Jan and Qamar Bacha as the identity of others could not be ascertained. Some eighteen policemen including Station House Officer Riazuddin Khan sustained injuries.

The injured were rushed to District Headquarters Hospital Bannu for treatment where emergency was declared. The blast was so powerful that bodies of the victims with stains of blood scattered in the area.

The NWFP Governor and the Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti have strongly condemned the suicide blasts at Peshawar and Bannu and expressed their heartfelt sympathies over the loss of precious lives.

In their separate messages, the Chief Minister and the Governor said that the terrorists have no religion and were targeting the innocent people which is the extreme limit of barbarism

The Chief Minister immediately directed the hospital administration for provision of better treatment facilities to the injured.

The Chief Minister and the Governor appealed people to remain calm and patient. They expressed solidarity with affected families and assured exemplary punishment to enemies to religion and humanity.

Talking to reporters at the site of explosion, the NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that terrorists would be crushed with full might and government will continue to make efforts till their complete elimination.

Mian Iftikhar said the terrorists have unleashed this wave of terror on the innocent masses of the province because of their unflinching support for military operations in Malakand Division and tribal belt. It is the reaction to successful ongoing military operations in terrorists-infested areas wherein they have been defeated. He asserted.
 

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