.Multiple Blasts in Pakistan After Taliban Warning
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Multiple bombs exploded in two Pakistani cities on Thursday, just hours after Taliban groups warned people to evacuate several large cities, saying they were preparing “major attacks.” The groups also claimed responsibility for a bloody attack in Lahore a day earlier that killed at least 26 people.
Three bombs detonated in Peshawar, northwest of Pakistan’s capital, and one exploded in Dera Ismail Khan, in the country’s troubled west, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens.
The attacks were reminders of the potency of militants in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed American ally that is fighting a war against the Taliban in its north and west. Pakistan is central to American policy in this region; militants in its lawless tribal areas cross the border into Afghanistan, where the United States is fighting a similar insurgency.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a young Taliban commander and lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, said that more attacks would follow the one in Lahore, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported. Hakimullah Mehsud, who spoke from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility for the Lahore bombing.
“We want the people of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to leave those cities, as we plan major attacks against government facilities in coming days and weeks,” he was quoted as saying in a telephone call to Reuters.
He said the Lahore attack was a response to Pakistan’s military campaign against the Taliban in Swat, an area northwest of the capital, which was overrun by militants this year. “We have been looking for a target from the day the military launched the operation in Swat,” he said.
Another Taliban group, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab, also claimed responsibility, saying Thursday in a posting on a Turkish militant Web site that it had staged the assault in Lahore.
The leader of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was in Lahore on Thursday, said in a statement that the country would not be terrorized and that the army remained committed to defeating insurgents.
The state minister for information, Sumsam Bokhari, said the attacks were a sign of insurgent weakness. “We are winning the war, and that is why they are resorting to these desperate measures,” he said by telephone.
A copy of a preliminary police report on the Lahore bombing, obtained by The New York Times, said six attackers in a white Toyota van had fired at officials in a building that housed an emergency-response unit. Three attackers escaped while the other three detonated the explosives-laden van, the report said, killing themselves.
The first of the triple bombings in Peshawar occurred at 6:30 p.m., at a secondhand electronics market. Minutes later in the same area, a bomb on a motorcycle exploded near an ice cream shop. The two bombs killed 5 people and wounded 73, the authorities said. The bomb disposal squad’s chief, Shafqat Mehmood, said both bombs were on timers.
The police said they chased two men they believed to be responsible and killed them.
Later, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, killing three police officers and wounding three more.
The police noticed another man advancing suspiciously toward the checkpoint, said Safwat Ghayyur, a police official. “Our men warned the young man approaching the post to stop, and when he did not they fired at him, killing him on the spot,” he said.
In Dera Ismail Khan, a bomb planted in the city’s town hall killed three and wounded seven, Dawn News reported.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said “such cowardly acts could not weaken the government’s resolve to stamp out terrorism.”
NYT
Three bombs detonated in Peshawar, northwest of Pakistan’s capital, and one exploded in Dera Ismail Khan, in the country’s troubled west, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens.
The attacks were reminders of the potency of militants in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed American ally that is fighting a war against the Taliban in its north and west. Pakistan is central to American policy in this region; militants in its lawless tribal areas cross the border into Afghanistan, where the United States is fighting a similar insurgency.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a young Taliban commander and lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, said that more attacks would follow the one in Lahore, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported. Hakimullah Mehsud, who spoke from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility for the Lahore bombing.
“We want the people of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to leave those cities, as we plan major attacks against government facilities in coming days and weeks,” he was quoted as saying in a telephone call to Reuters.
He said the Lahore attack was a response to Pakistan’s military campaign against the Taliban in Swat, an area northwest of the capital, which was overrun by militants this year. “We have been looking for a target from the day the military launched the operation in Swat,” he said.
Another Taliban group, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab, also claimed responsibility, saying Thursday in a posting on a Turkish militant Web site that it had staged the assault in Lahore.
The leader of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was in Lahore on Thursday, said in a statement that the country would not be terrorized and that the army remained committed to defeating insurgents.
The state minister for information, Sumsam Bokhari, said the attacks were a sign of insurgent weakness. “We are winning the war, and that is why they are resorting to these desperate measures,” he said by telephone.
A copy of a preliminary police report on the Lahore bombing, obtained by The New York Times, said six attackers in a white Toyota van had fired at officials in a building that housed an emergency-response unit. Three attackers escaped while the other three detonated the explosives-laden van, the report said, killing themselves.
The first of the triple bombings in Peshawar occurred at 6:30 p.m., at a secondhand electronics market. Minutes later in the same area, a bomb on a motorcycle exploded near an ice cream shop. The two bombs killed 5 people and wounded 73, the authorities said. The bomb disposal squad’s chief, Shafqat Mehmood, said both bombs were on timers.
The police said they chased two men they believed to be responsible and killed them.
Later, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, killing three police officers and wounding three more.
The police noticed another man advancing suspiciously toward the checkpoint, said Safwat Ghayyur, a police official. “Our men warned the young man approaching the post to stop, and when he did not they fired at him, killing him on the spot,” he said.
In Dera Ismail Khan, a bomb planted in the city’s town hall killed three and wounded seven, Dawn News reported.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said “such cowardly acts could not weaken the government’s resolve to stamp out terrorism.”
NYT
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