KOHAT – As many as 41 people were killed and 70 others got injured on Saturday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a camp established for internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Orakzai Agency here at Kacha Pakha area on Hangu Road.
According to details, the first suicide bomber targeted a queue of the people who were standing to get edible items from a ration distribution point in the camp. It was a few minutes later when the second suicide blast took place at the same venue when the people gathered to carry out rescue work for the victims of the first blast. Spokesman of a defunct organisation, Lashkar-i-Jhangwi (LJ), has accepted the responsibility for the attacks.
The security forces cordoned off the area soon after the blasts and adopted strict security measures in the locality. They started rescue activities and shifted the injured and the dead to District Headquarter Hospital and Liaqat Hospital in the city. A state of emergency has been declared at all hospitals of the area.
Hospital sources informed that condition of the several injured persons was critical and the death toll was feared to increase.
According to police sources, the head of a suicide bomber was found from the site of the blast. The suicide bomber was around 18 to 20 years of age, while parts of another body were also lying scattered that probably could be the parts of the second suicide bomber. The suicide bombers came in Burqas (veils) to the camp, the sources further informed.
21 dead bodies including one of a correspondent of a private TV channel Azmat Ali Khan were identified till filing of this report. Another journalist Rafeeq sustained injuries in the gory incident.
The Commissioner Kohat Khalid Khan told media persons that the first blast was carried out at the food distribution site at 12:00 p.m. while the second occurred at the same venue after a lapse of 10 minutes.
According to the DPO Kohat Dilawar Khan, about 10 to 12 kilograms explosive material was used in the blasts and parts of two suicide jackets were also found from the site of the incident.
Agencies add: The bombers struck minutes apart in the Kacha Pukha camp on the outskirts of Kohat, a registration centre for people fleeing Taliban violence and military operations close to the Afghan border.
The attacks underscored the grave threat posed by extremists despite stepped-up Pakistani offensives and a significant increase in US drone attacks targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders in the nearby tribal belt.
Local police chief Dilawar Khan Bangash told AFP by telephone that body parts of the bombers were recovered and most of the victims were members of the Mani Khel and Baramad Khel tribes who had gathered for registration after fleeing fighting in their home district of Orakzai.
Khalid Omarzai, the local chief of administration, also said 41 people died, including Azmat Ali Bangash, a journalist working for local TV channel.
Akhtar Jan, 35, a taxi driver, said he heard a huge blast soon after dropping passengers at the camp. “I rushed to the blast site and put a wounded man into my cab. And when I went to bring another blast victim I heard another blast,” he told AFP by telephone from his hospital bed. “I fell unconscious and don’t know how I was brought here,” said Jan, who received injuries to his head and abdomen.
At least 210,000 people have been displaced from the tribal districts of Orakzai and Kurram, most of whom have registered in Kohat and Hangu towns.
The first attacker was followed seconds later by a teenager who blew himself up, said local commissioner Khalid Khan Omarzai. “It was huge and caused most of the deaths,” he said.
“The blasts were so powerful that the limbs of people scattered throughout the area. People are searching limbs of their dear ones in nearby crop fields,” said resident Mohammad Qasim. Shoes and blood-stained clothes lay scattered.
