96 dead in Lakki Marwat suicide blast

Staff Report LAKKI MARWAT: A northwest Pakistani village that tried to resist Taliban infiltration struggled with grief on Saturday as families mourned 96 people killed in an apparent revenge suicide bombing at an outdoor volleyball game. The attack on Shah Hasan Khel village was one of the deadliest in a surge of bombings that have killed more than 600 since October, and it sent a bloody New Year's message to Pakistanis who dare take on the armed Islamist extremists. As rescuers looked for bodies in the rubble, many residents in the village of 5,000 were too scared on Saturday to even speculate who carried out the blast. The suicide bomber detonated some 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of high-intensity explosives on the crowded field in the village during a volleyball tournament on Friday. The blast was probably intending to hit a nearby gathering of tribal elders who oversee an anti-Taliban militia. The committee was debating how to punish relatives of militants suspected in the recent killing of a fellow tribesman. The blast levelled some three dozen mud-brick homes and covered the village with dust, smoke and the smell of burning flesh. On Saturday, numerous homes received visitors offering condolences, and funeral prayers were held for many victims. The village lies in Lakki Marwat district near South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal region where the army has battled the Pakistani Taliban since October. The military operation was undertaken with the backing of the US, which is eager for Pakistan to free its tribal belt of militants believed to be involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan. But the offensive has provoked apparent reprisal attacks across the country. Those behind the strikes appear increasingly willing to hit targets beyond security forces. No group claimed responsibility for Friday's blast, but that is not uncommon when many civilians die. At least 96 people have been killed in a powerful suicide bomb blast on a volley ball ground during the match in Shah Hasan Khel Friday. The police faces difficulties in taking the injured and the dead bodies to the hospitals due to shortage of vehicles. Many houses have been collapsed after the powerful suicide attack. Immediately after the blast, Mian Iftikhar, Information Minister NWFP said that 35 people have been killed in the suicide attack while the unconfirmed reports indicate that the death toll has reached to 50. The dead also include one policeman while six security personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC) are still missing, he added. Four houses have been destroyed in the suicide attack. It seems to be a suicide attack. Two vehicles were being used in the terrorist attack. More than 35 people have also been injured in the suicide attack. Earlier, state TV reported that at least 40 people have been killed in a powerful suicide blast in a volley ball play ground during the match in Shah Hasan Khel in Lakki Marwat. Other news agencies have reported the death toll reached at 25, quoting local police officials. "We have confirmed a figure of 25 deaths. There are many more wounded who are being rushed to hospitals in private vehicles," an official Habibullah Khan told Reuters by telephone. DPO Ayub Khan confirming the suicide bomb blast said that several causalities are being feared and several others injured. The rescue team, police and other law enforcement agencies have rushed to the spot and have started rescue works. He said at least nine people have been injured and all the injured are being taken to Lakki Marwat District Hospital. Several operations have been carried out against the terrorists in this area, he added. The area where the blast has occurred is being said once a strong hold of the terrorists but has been cleared of the terrorists after the military operation. The government of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has announced Rs 300,000 for the families of the victims while Rs 100,000 for the injured. President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani have severely condemned the suicide attack in Lakki Marwat and have given instructions to provide better health facilities to the injured in the hospitals. AGENCIES ADD Investigators sifted through rubble Saturday after a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives-filled vehicle in a crowd watching a volleyball game in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 88. Friday's bombing marked a bloody start to 2010 for Pakistan, which has seen a surge in attacks blamed on the Taliban in recent months as Islamist fighters avenge military operations aimed at crushing their northwest strongholds. The huge blast was Pakistan's deadliest in more than two months, triggering the collapse of more than 20 houses, some with families inside, in a village bordering a Taliban stronghold, officials said. The attack was condemned by Britain and the United States, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowing the US would continue supporting Pakistani people "in their efforts to chart their own future free from fear and intimidation". The bomber detonated his explosives-packed vehicle as fans gathered at a volleyball court to watch two local sides face off in the village of Shah Hasan Khan, in Bannu district, bordering Taliban stronghold South Waziristan. "The villagers were watching the match between the two village teams when the bomber drove his double-cabin pick-up vehicle into them and blew it up," district police chief Mohammad Ayub Khan told AFP. "The death toll has risen to 88 and 37 others were wounded," Khan said. Six children and five paramilitary soldiers were among the dead, he added. The tournament was organised by the local peace committee, who had supported a government operation to expel militants from the area, Khan said. It was the highest death toll from a suspected militant strike since a massive car bomb on October 28 killed 125 people in a crowded market in the northwestern provincial capital Peshawar. Ramzan Bittani, a 33-year-old driver, told AFP by telephone from a local hospital that he had left the match to take a call. "As I was listening, I saw a huge blue and white flash followed by an ear-piercing blast. When I was able to figure out what had happened, I saw bodies and smoke all around. My hand was fractured," he said. Anwer Khan, 18, a student, said that he had just stepped out of his house and he saw a black pick-up speeding up towards the spectators. "A giant flame leaped towards the sky. There was bright light everywhere, just like a flash, and then a very huge blast shook everything. Two pellets hit my forehead and blood started flowing," Khan said. District police chief Khan blamed the bomb on Islamist extremists who were the target of a military operation in Bannu district last year. Security has plummeted over the past two-and-a-half years in Pakistan, where militant violence has killed more than 2,800 people since July 2007. The northwest has suffered the brunt of the militant campaign, with suicide bombings increasingly targeting civilians. The military is now locked in its most ambitious assault yet on Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan, sending 30,000 troops into battle in the district on the Afghan border on October 17. Washington, however, is urging Pakistan to do more to also stamp out Al-Qaeda sanctuaries and dismantle havens of militants who cross the border and attack US and NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan. Officials Friday confirmed that at least four militants were killed in a US missile strike on a compound in Machikhel village, 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border. Such US strikes in Pakistan have killed at least 662 people since August 2008 and greatly inflame anti-American sentiment in the Muslim nation. TERRORIST ATTACKS IN NWFP IN 2009 • January 4: A suicide bomber was killed while two people sustained injuries near a check-post in Officers’ Colony in Bannu. The suicide bomber blew himself up in an attempt to target a check-post but could not succeed as the bomb exploded before he could reach his target. • January 4: Ten persons, including 4 policemen, were killed and 27 others injured in two bomb blasts near the Polytechnic College in Dera Ismail Khan. • January 17: In the first incident of its kind in Peshawar, religious scholar Pir Hafiz Rafeeullah, who was kidnapped on January 16, was reportedly slaughtered and his decapitated body was found in the Matani area of the capital on the morning of January 17. • January 20: Four policemen and 4 civilians were injured when a police patrol van was hit by a roadside bomb on Ring Road in the Hazarkhwani area of Peshawar. • January 23: Two SF personnel were killed in a car suicide attack near Mingora town in the Swat District of NWFP. • January 26: At least 5 people have been killed and several wounded in a bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan. The bomb, attached to a bicycle, went off on a busy main road. • February 3: One man was killed and 18 others injured in a hand grenade attack on a Sunni mosque at Mohallah Joginwala in Dera Ismail Khan district. • February 5: A suicide attacker detonated an explosive-laden car near a police station in the Mingora town of Swat District, injuring a dozen officers and destroying part of the building. • February 9: At least 18 FC personnel were injured in amini-truck suicide attack on the Baran Pul check-post of the Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) in the jurisdiction of Bakkakhel police station in Bannu District. • February 11: Alamzeb Khan, a Member of Provincial Assembly from the ruling Awami National Party (ANP), was killed and 7 others were injured in a remote-controlled bomb blast in Momin Town in Peshawar. • February 17: Five people were killed and 17 injured in a car bomb blast outside the Hujra (male guest house) of the union council chief in Bazidkhel village of Peshawar. • February 20: At least 32 persons were killed and 145 others injured when a suicide bomber exploded himself in the funeral procession of a slain employee of the Tehsil Municipal Administration near the busy Shubra Square in Dera Ismail Khan. • February 23: A police guard was killed when he flung himself onto a suicide bomber to prevent him from entering a compound in Bannu. The attacker was trying to enter the compound, where judges and senior police officials live and work, when the guard intercepted him. Two other police guards were wounded in the attack. • March 5: One person was killed and 19 others sustained injuries when a hand-grenade hurled by unidentified miscreants at worshippers exploded in Ameer Hamza mosque in Dera Ismail Khan. • March 5: Suspected Taliban militants blew an ancient shrine of a 17th century Sufi poet - Rehman Baba - in the Akhund Baba graveyard of Peshawar. A letter delivered three days before the attack to the management of the mausoleum had warned against its promotion of ‘shrine culture’. • March 7: Eight persons, including five policemen, two Frontier Corps personnel and a civilian, were killed in a remote-controlled car bombing at Mashugagr village in Peshawar. Some villagers also sustained minor injuries. • March 11: The NWFP Senior Minister and Awami National Party leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour survived an assassination attempt that left six persons, including two suspected suicide attackers, dead in Namak Mandi in Peshawar. Four persons, including a young girl, were wounded in the firing, grenade attack and suicide blast. • March 18: Five people including three policemen were killed and four injured when over 100 unidentified armed men attacked a police vehicle at the entrance of the University of Malakand at Chakdara in Lower Dir District. • March 30: Seven persons, including 5 Army soldiers, were killed and 9 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a military convoy near a filling station on the Bannu-Miranshah Road. • April 5: Police found bullet-riddled bodies of four local aid workers, including three women, in Shinkiari area of Mansehra District. • April 15: At least 18 persons, including nine policemen, were killed and five others injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the Harichand Police Post in Charsadda District. • April 18: At least 27 SF personnel were killed and 55 others injured in a suicide attack on a security check post in the Doaba area of Hangu District. • April 26: 12 children were killed after playing with a bomb that resembled a football. The children died after the toy-like-bomb exploded in Lower Dir District. • May 1: The ISPR spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said two Frontier Corps personnel were killed when a suicide bomber blew up a booby-trapped house in the Buner District. • May 4: A suicide car bomber killed 4 SF personnel and wounded 8 persons in the outskirts of Peshawar. • May 5: Seven people, including 2 children and a Frontier Corps soldier, were killed and 48 others sustained injuries when an explosives-laden car rammed into a pick-up near a check-post on the Bara road near Peshawar. • May 11: At least 10 people died and 27 were injured as a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden vehicle near a Frontier Corps check post in the outskirts of Darra Adam Khel. • May 16: Two handicapped children and 2 of their teachers were among 11 people killed in a car bomb blast at congested City Circular Road, Peshawar. At least 33 people were injured. • May 16: Six people, including two women and two children, sustained minor injuries when a low-intensity explosive device went off in a busy market in Peshawar. • May 22: At least 10 people were killed and 65 others were injured when a powerful car bomb exploded near the Tasveer Mahal Cinema hall in the busy Kabuli Chowk area. • May 28: Three policemen were killed and 9 others injured in a suicide attack on a police vehicle at the Sra Khawra security post on the Kohat road in the jurisdiction of Matani Police station on the outskirts of Peshawar. • May 28: A policeman and 2 passers-by were killed and 13 people wounded when a suicide attacker exploded an auto-rickshaw near a police checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan. • June 5: A suicide bomber killed 49 worshippers, including 12 children, at a mosque in a remote village of the Dir Upper District. Dozens more were injured in the blast just before Friday congregation in the Hayagay Sharqi village. • June 7: One non-commissioned officer was killed and five others were injured in an attack on security forces' convoy transporting TNSM deputy chief Maulana Alam and spokesman Amir Izaat to Peshawar, the NWFP capital. Both leaders of banned outfits were also killed in the attack. • June 9: A massive truck suicide attack at the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar killed 17 persons and injured 60 others. • June 11: A man was killed and 13 others, including 9 policemen, sustained injuries in a hand grenade-cum-suicide attack on a police party in the Lateefabad area on Ring Road in Peshawar. • June 11: NWFP Minister for Prisons Mian Nisar Gul Kakakhel was seriously injured and his two guards were killed when his convoy was ambushed by suspected militants in Darra Adam Khel. • June 12: Five worshippers were killed and 105 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden van into a mosque during the Friday prayers in the Cantonment area of Nowshera. Two soldiers were among the four persons killed on the spot while most of the 105 wounded were reportedly Army personnel. • June 14: Nine people were killed and over 40 injured when a powerful explosion ripped through a busy market in Dera Ismail Khan. • June 22: Two policemen were killed and 7 people, including 3 policemen, sustained injuries when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the Thakot Police check-post in Battagram District. • June 24: Three policemen, including an officer, were killed when some miscreants fired rockets and mortar shells at the Arbab Tapu check-post in the jurisdiction of Matani Police Station. • July 2: Two policemen were killed and an equal number of people sustained injuries when Taliban targeted a police vehicle with a remote-controlled device in Peshawar. • July 9: A Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) employee was killed and three injured when Taliban militants blew up an electricity pylon using a remote-controlled device in Merra Suraizai Payan village on the outskirts of the provincial capital Peshawar. • July 15: Two people, including an official of the UNHCR, were killed and another injured when suspected Taliban militants attempted to abduct UN officials at the Katcha Ghari Refugee Camp in Nasir Bagh. • July 15: Two children were injured in a rocket attack. Taliban militants fired three rockets from an unidentified location into the city at about 12:30pm, and one of them hit a house in Sethi Town, injuring a 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy. • July 20: Suspected militants of the Mangal Bagh group killed four policemen in an ambush on the outskirts of Peshawar. • August 2: In the southern Mashogagar village, terrorists killed a prayer leader Qari Roohul Amin of Sulemankhel, who had been abducted on June 29, and placed three kilograms of explosives with his body to trigger it with a remote control device in the hope that policemen would come close to it. Officials of the bomb disposal squad, however, defused the explosives without any damage. • August 2: Militants shot dead two policemen in Paharipura. A squad of the Paharipura Police Station was ambushed by unknown gunmen in Islamabad town of Peshawar around 2:30 am while patrolling the streets. • August 10: Militants fired rockets at a paramilitary checkpoint in Peshawar, killing two civilians. The pre-dawn rocket attack targeted a Frontier Corps base in the city's Hayatabad neighborhood. • August 16: A soldier was killed and three others sustained injuries in a suicide attack near a SFs checkpoint in the Swat District. • August 17: Seven people were killed and eight others injured when a bomb placed in a vehicle exploded at a filling station in the Shabqadar area in Charsadda. • August 18: Suspected militants beheaded a man kidnapped from the Matani area on August 12. Kabir Hussain, who had come from the US and was kidnapped on his way from Peshawar airport to his village Dabori in Kohat District. • August 22: Two persons were killed and three others injured in a suicide blast in Hayatabad area. The blast occurred in sector N-I Phase IV of the area near the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). • August 23: Three persons were killed and 15 others sustained injuries in a powerful suicide blast close to the house of the slain AI spokesman, Mobin Afridi, in the Momin Town area of Peshawar • August 30: At least 16 police recruits were killed and 11 others sustained injuries after a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body at the Mingora Police Station. • September 4: Suspected militants shot dead two FC troopers in Nasir Bagh suburbs of Peshawar early in the morning while they were patrolling the area. • September 12: Two policemen were injured in a suicide blast near Doaba Police Station in the Hangu District. • September 18: At least 33 people were killed and more than 50 injured in a suicide car blast in Kohat District. • September 26: Two suicide attackers separately rammed their explosives-laden vehicles into a Police station in Bannu and a military-owned commercial bank in Peshawar cantonment area, killing at least 27 people and injuring around another 200. • September 28: At least four persons, including a prominent anti-Taliban cleric, were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a car at Bannu. • October 6: A woman, a minor girl and a boy sustained injuries when a rocket hit a house in Miskeenabad under the jurisdiction of Bhanamari Police Station, Peshawar at around 2 am. • October 9: At least 56 persons, including a woman and seven children, were killed and 112 others were injured when a suicide attacker detonated his explosives-laden car at the crowded Soekarno Chowk in Khyber Bazaar in Peshawar. • October 12: At least 47 persons, including 9 security officials, were killed and 45 others were injured in a suicide attack on a military convoy in the Alpuri area of Shangla District, NWFP. • October 15: At least 11 persons, including 3 policemen, were killed and 22 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the building of the Saddar Police Station located in the military area of Kohat. • October 15: An eight-year-old boy, identified as Hamza, was killed and 12 persons, including two policemen, were wounded when a powerful bomb exploded in a three-storey building in the officers’ colony of provincial capital Peshawar. • October 16: At least 12 persons, including three policemen, were killed and 24 others sustained injuries after a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the CIA’s Special Investigation Unit in Peshawar. • October 23: At least 15 people were injured in a bombing outside a restaurant in the Hayatabad area. The bomb was planted in a car. • October 28: A remote-controlled car bomb killed 117 people – including women and children – and injured around 200 others at the Meena Bazaar in Peshawar. • November 8: At least 18 people, including a local councillor heading an anti-Taliban Lashkar (militia), were killed and 44 others injured when a suicide bomber blew him up in a cattle market at Adezai village, 25 km south of the capital city of Peshawar. • November 9: Three persons, including a policeman, were killed and 5 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber riding an auto-rickshaw blew himself up at a police barricade on the Ring Road in the Latifabad area of Peshawar • November 10: Suicide car bomb blast at Farooq-e-Azam Chowk, Charsadda. Thirty two people were killed and 80 were injured in the incident. • November 12: Syed Abul Hassan Jaffry, media manager of the Iranian consulate in Peshawar, was shot dead near his home in Gulbarg. Jaffry was going to his office when he was shot at point-blank range as he turned his car towards the Swati Phatak. • November 13: At least 17 people, including 10 military personnel, were killed and 60 injured when a suicide bomber on an explosive-laden Shehzore truck detonated the explosive material in front of the regional headquarters of the ISI in Peshawar • November 13: Twelve people, including 5 security officials, were killed and 26 injured in a suicide attack at a Police Station in the Bannu town of Bannu District. • November 14: At least 12 persons, including a policeman and a three-year-old child, were killed and another 35 injured when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle at police check post in Pashta Kharra Chowk, Peshawar. • November 16: Four persons were killed and more than 30 others sustained injuries in a suicide car bombing which targeted the Badhber Police Station on the Kohat Road near Peshawar. • November 19: At least 20 people, including three policemen, were killed and 50 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the main gate of the Judicial Complex on Khyber Road in Peshawar. • November 19: A bomb attack on the police van ripped through the vehicle, killing two policemen on the spot and wounding five civilians on the outskirts of Peshawar. • November 25: The cleaner of an oil tanker, used for NATO forces in Afghanistan, was killed and its driver injured when unidentified gunmen attacked the vehicle on the Ring Road near Tor Baba. • November 26: A remote-controlled bomb blast injured three people, including two policemen and a young girl, and destroyed an electricity pylon in Bashirabad area. • November 30: Two police officials were injured when unidentified armed men attacked their vehicle on the Indus Highway, police said. • December 1: A leading politician, Shamsher Ali Khan, was reportedly killed when a suicide bomber targeted a guest house where he was present. Another 8 people, including his brother, were injured in this attack. • December 3: A police official was injured in an explosion at a police check-post in the Ragai area of capital Peshawar. • December 5: At least four people, including a women, were killed and 12 people were injured in a car bomb explosion at United Plaza, Tehkal Market, University Road, Peshawar. • December 7: At least 12 people, including 2 policemen, were killed and 50 were injured in a suicide attack outside a court in Peshawar. • December 22: A suicide bomber blew himself at the gate of the Peshawar Press Club, killing 3 persons including a policeman, and injuring 17 others. December 24: At least 5 people, including a policeman, were killed and 24 were injured in a suicide attack near State Life Building, Saddar, Mall Road, Peshawar.