Swat suicide attack kills 14
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The death toll in the suicide attack in northwest Pakistan's Swat has risen to 14, including two soldiers, two policemen and a child, police sources said Saturday.
![A soldier walk past a damaged vehicle at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Mingora, located in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province on March 13, 2010. A suicide bomber targeting security forces in Pakistan's Swat Valley on Saturday killed at least 14 people, police said, part of a renewed Taliban push against the government after a major crackdown against the group. [Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20100313/000cf1bdd03f0d05859c24.jpg "A soldier walk past a damaged vehicle at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Mingora, located in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province on March 13, 2010. A suicide bomber targeting security forces in Pakistan's Swat Valley on Saturday killed at least 14 people, police said, part of a renewed Taliban push against the government after a major crackdown against the group. [Xinhua]") |
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A soldier walk past a damaged vehicle at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Mingora, located in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province on March 14, 2010. A suicide bomber targeting security forces in Pakistan's Swat Valley on Saturday killed at least 10 people, police said, part of a renewed Taliban push against the government after a major crackdown against the group. [Xinhua] |
District Police Officer Qazi Ghulam Farooq said that more than 30 people were injured on Saturday in the attack in the busy area of Mingora, the main city in Swat.
He said that the bomber was in an auto rickshaw and detonated his bomb near check post outside the district court.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack. The police said that suspected Taliban are behind the attack.
Witnesses and officials had different versions of the attack. The army-run media center and witnesses said that the bomber was on foot and was trying to enter the premises of district court. They said that the security personnel fired at the bomber after he refused to stop.
The check post was established near district court and the area was heavily guarded and the bomber succeeded to reach the check post.
The injured were taken to main hospital in the area and the people closed markets.
Witnesses said that some 25 vehicles were destroyed and several shops and roadside restaurants were damaged in the attack.
The authorities imposed curfew in the area and security forces launched a search operation to apprehend the facilitators of the bomber.
A witness said that he heard two blasts, the first small and the second was powerful. "I was 30-40 feet away from the attacks when I heard blasts and five people including a child fell on the road," the witness said.
The entire area has been cordoned off and all the shops and markets located on the road have been closed down, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, five foreigners among 105 suspects were arrested in Rawalpindi, the garrison city near the capital Islamabad, during search operation conducted by security forces, local TV channel reported.
Security forces have stepped up its search operation in the wake of recent terror wave in the country.
In 2008, Pakistani security forces had launched major operation against the militants in Swat valley and killed hundreds of Taliban and took control of the whole area.
Chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Swat Maulana Fazaluallah, who led insurgents in bloody fighting against the army, is still at large. An army commander in Swat said on Saturday that the security forces are after Fazaullah and that he would be captured soon.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that as the TTP has suffered defeat in tribal regions and Swat now they have launched guerrilla attacks in cities.
A series of suicide attacks on army and bomb blasts in public places killed over 50 people and injured more than 100 others in the eastern city of Lahore on Friday.
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.
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