PESHAWAR – At least 10 persons including seven personnel of security forces were killed and over 60 others got injured in a deadly suicide attack near the country’s premier intelligence agency building opposite to Army Stadium here on Friday morning.
Police sources and eyewitnesses informed that a suicide bomber boarded on an explosive-laden mini-truck first tried to cross the military checkpost but upon resistance of security personnel, the bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle near the office of an intelligence agency. The blast jolted the entire city while black smoke spewed from heavily damaged three-storey building.
The blast occurred at an extremely sensitive location of the provincial capital, as both the Chief Minister House and the Governor House are situated just a few meters away from the site of the blast. While on the opposite side, Army Stadium is situated where a large number of people visit at nighttime for walk. The blast occurred at about 06:40am.
The front structure of the spy agencyÂ’s building was severely damaged. The blast was so powerful that dead bodies of the victims scattered in the area. Soon after the blast, rescuers rushed towards the blast site, retrieved the dead and injured from the debris and shifted them to Lady Reading Hospital and Combined Military Hospital.
Police and security forces cordoned off the area and collected the evidences form the site. NWFP inspector General of Police Malik Naveed Khan confirmed that it was suicide car blast and around 300 kilograms explosive material was used in it.
Police and spokesman of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Sahib Gul told that seven more injured were being treated in intensive care unit of Lady Reading Hospital and it was feared that the death toll might rise.
The injured included Abdul Rashid son of Ghulam Mohiudin, Afaq Ahmed son of Mohsin Raza, Aqeel Zaman son of Shamsur Rehman, Akhtar son of Sher Khan, Amanullah son of Ghulam Khan, Abdullah son of Khan Badshah, Asfandyar son of Qazi Latif, Azeem Khan son of Fazal Haleem, Azhar Hassan, Dost Mohammad, Farzana, Fazal Rabi, Haji Khadim, Irfan, Jamil son of Abdul latif, Naseem, M. Sahib, Nasir, Noor Khan, Rehman son of Fazal Rabi, Robi Atif, Saleem, Shazia, William son of Barkat Masih, Zafar Ali, Zahid Shah Zamrud Khan, Zeshan.
Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti strongly condemned the suicide attack. They expressed deep sorrow over the casualties and prayed Allah Almighty to shower His blessings on the departed souls. They also directed best possible medical treatment for the injured.
They termed the attack as barbaric and said the government would continue efforts to wipe out extremists and terrorists from the country. Both President Zardari and PM Gilani expressed their resolve not to be deterred by acts of violence.
Agencies add: A powerful suicide truck bomb ripped through the Peshawar headquarters of countryÂ’s top spy agency Friday, killing at least 10 people and leaving much of the fortified building in ruins.
The attack devastated the three-storey Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) provincial headquarters in Peshawar, sending huge clouds of smoke spewing into the sky and destroying more than half of the building.
The bomber, driving a mini-truck loaded with explosives, raced down the road towards the ISI building shortly before sunrise, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.
Soldiers opened fire after they spotted the truck, but the bomber ploughed into a steel barrier and blew up the vehicle outside the main gate of the ISI compound, wreaking massive destruction, he added.
More than half of the U-shaped building was destroyed by the force of the blast, which devastated its outer wall, a front portion and a column, and scattered bodies among the rubble, an AFP reporter said. A wounded soldier said the bomber was in a type of vehicle that usually delivers medical supplies.
“All of a sudden it appeared on the wrong side of the road and began coming towards the office,” the soldier, Nasir, told Reuters. “The guards opened fire but it came to the entrance of the building as the firing went on and exploded.”
Peshawar has increasingly become the favoured target for major attacks by suspected Taliban militants in recent months, particularly since the army launched its massive offensive in October.
Absar Ahmed, a 25-year-old taxi driver, said he was driving near the ISI building when he heard gunshots followed by a huge blast.
“My car was hurled on to the pavement by the force of the blast and my head banged into the windscreen. When I looked back to check on my passenger there was smoke all over,” Ahmed told AFP in hospital.
The attacks coincided with a visit by US National Security Advisor James Jones who held talks with Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani.
“Seven military officials and three civilians were martyred and 60 others were injured,” a military statement said.
“Up to 300 kilograms of high explosives and mortars were packed into the car bomb,” provincial police chief Malik Naveed told AFP.
The US embassy in Islamabad condemned the “terrorist attacks” and said it honoured “those brave Pakistani military, police and security personnel who are fully engaged in combating these extremists”.
The most devastating bomb attack in Pakistan in two years killed at least 118 people in a crowded Peshawar market on October 28 as militants put ordinary civilians in the crosshairs of their bloody campaign.
FridayÂ’s bombing was the first major attack outside an ISI installation since May, when a suicide attack on a police building in Lahore killed 24 people.
The government blames increasing attacks on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is the target of the ongoing offensive and which wants to avenge the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud by a US missile in August.