Pakistan: Scores Killed In Suicide Attack

A suicide bomber has rammed his car into a police station in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killing over a dozen people while a similar number have been injured. This is the second attack on the police station within two days. Earlier a suicide attack has been carried out on a police station in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killing several policemen.

A suicide car bomb targeted a city police station in Pakistan’s northwestern town of Hangu on Thursday, killing 12 people and wounding more than 20 others, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Pakistan’s main Taliban faction have claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks against government security forces apparently to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.

“It was a car suicide attack targeting a city police station. The bomber blew up the car at a checkpoint close to the police station,” said police deputy inspector general Masood Khan Afridi.

“Twelve people were killed and 21 wounded, eight of them are serious,” he told AFP. Police had earlier put the toll at five.

“It was a car suicide attack targeting a nearby city police station. He wanted to blow up the city police station but he blew up the car close to the barrier outside the station,” said regional police spokesman Fazal Naeem.

Hangu district has a history of violence between minority Shia and majority Sunni sects, and is close to tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have carved out strongholds.

Source: dawn.com