LAKKI MARWAT – At least 19 people including policemen and students were killed and 57 others got injured when a suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station here on Monday morning.
According to sources and eyewitnesses, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden pickup into Lakki Police Station building at 07:00 a.m. causing massive destruction to the police station and nearby buildings. They said that policemen were inside the building while a number of people, mostly students, were passing by the police station on the old Katchery Road to reach their schools.
Intensity of the blast can be gauged from the destruction and damages it caused in the radius of one and a half furlongs, they maintained, saying that the building of police station was completely destroyed in the explosion.
A number of policemen were buried under the debris and wreckage of the building and rescue operation was immediately launched to dig out the injured and the dead. DCO Muhammad Ayyaz Mandokhel, DPO Gul Wali Khan and SSP Investigation Qayyum Jan Marwat also rushed towards the spot soon after the incident and themselves took part in the rescue work. Regional Police Officer Bannu Region also inspected the blast site.
Heavy machinery and excavators were brought to remove the rubbles of the destroyed buildings. Besides the police station building, the blast destroyed the building of Veterinary Hospital, City Hospital, offices of DSP Lakki, SSP Investigation, Assistant Director Livestock and District Collector, residence of Assistant Coordination Officer and several houses and shops in the locality. The blast also shattered shutters and windowpanes of shops in the locality.
Emergency was declared in the city hospitals. A team of doctors along with medicines also arrived Lakki from Bannu.
An official in Lakki City Hospital told reporters that 15 bodies, including seven of policemen, and 57 injured persons had been brought to the hospital so far. Four students, a primary schoolteacher and an Afghan woman are also among the dead, he added.
Due to explosion an electricity transformer and two power pylons installed outside the residence of ACO fell on a motorcar carrying schoolchildren. Many students were killed and injured in the incident.
Out of 57 wounded persons, 24 are police personnel and over eight are students. Eight wounded people were referred to Bannu while four others were taken to DI Khan in critical condition.
Sources told that 500 to 600 kg explosive material was used in the suicide attack. They said that experts collected evidence and parts of the vehicle used in the blast from the site and examined the crater caused by the explosion. Security was beefed up in the city and law enforcers were deputed on roads and streets leading to the site of the blast.
The cops who were killed in the blast included Qasim Khan, Ajab Khan, Muhammad Akram, Ghani Rehman, Hafeezullah, Muhammad Ishaq and Muhammad Hashim, while civilians who died in the explosions included Ms Batakha Bibi (Afghan national), Khalil-ur-Rehman (student), Ms Sehri Hayat (student), Asma Naheed (Student), Ismatullah (student), Faiz Rasool (schoolteacher) and two unknown persons.
The injured police personnel are Muhammad Arif, Munawar Khan, Khan Muhammad, Haroon Rashid, Javed Khan, Abdul Haq, Shehzada, Naqeebullah, Sifatullah, Terri Khan, Javed Iqbal, Faheemullah, Ikramullah, Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Idrees, Naseer Khan, Muhammad Ayyaz, Fakhar Alam, Illauddin, Afsar Khan, Mamoor Khan, Muhammad Hayya, Muhammad Amin and Zeshaan.
Civilians who were wounded in the explosions included Hafiz Ihasan-ur-Rehman, his brother Shafiur Rehman, Muhammad Hasan, Muhammad Hanif, Fazal Rehman, Samiullah, Sifatullah, Wahid Ali, Sher Bahadar, Kamran, Israruddin, Fayazuddin, Waqaruddin, Jamal Khan, Majid, Muhammad Farooq, Israr Ali, Rustam Khan, Gul Nawaz, Faizullah, Suhail, Kalimullah, Ibrahim, Ikramullah, Ameer Jehan, Naveed Akhtar, Fatima Bibi, Javeria, Farhat, Naveed Asif, Khursheed Begum, Khizar Hayat and wife of Pir Ghulam.
Reuters adds: A Taliban suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station in northwest Pakistan on Monday killing at least 19 people, police said, in a new wave of attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants. The recent bombings end a relative lull in militant violence over the past month and turn up the heat on a government overwhelmed by devastating floods that have made millions homeless and hammered the economy.
Nearly 100 people were killed last week in suicide bombings on processions of minority Shiite Muslims in the eastern city of Lahore and southwestern city of Quetta. “It goes to show that the terrorists have no creed except bloodshed and chaos, and are desperately carrying out their agenda regardless of the precarious conditions,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told a meeting of provincial officials.
PakistanÂ’s Taliban claimed responsibility for MondayÂ’s attack in the town of Lakki Marwat, warning the government not to use lashkar or militias to fight the group. The bomber struck a school van before hitting the rear wall of the police station. The blast turned most of the police station into rubble. Burned-out cars were flipped on their sides.
“Nineteen people have been killed. There are nine policemen and two children among the dead,” said the Information Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain. Hussain said 34 people, including 20 policemen, were wounded.
Earlier this year, a suicide bomber blew himself up in an SUV at a volleyball game, killing nearly 100 people in a village near Lakki Marwat in one of the deadliest attacks in the country. PakistanÂ’s Taliban have been fighting to topple the US-backed government for years. Their ambitions have grown, complicating the US war on militancy.