RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, 5 September 2007 — Two suicide bombers yesterday attacked an army bus and the Qasim Market located in Rawalpindi’s cantonment area, killing 25 people and injuring over 70 people. Bombers struck at 7.30 a.m., a time when army officers and schoolchildren normally leave for their respective destinations.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions, which deepened the sense of crisis in Pakistan amid political uncertainty ahead of elections. Officials suggested the bombings were the work of Islamic militants.
The first explosion devastated the bus early yesterday as it traveled through a high-security area of Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of Islamabad and the headquarters of the army. Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said the vehicle belonged to the Defense Ministry and was carrying employees of various government departments.
He denied reports that the bus was carrying intelligence agency staff, but provided no further details on the victims.
Arif Sultan, a survivor of the bus attack, told AP Television News that the bomb went off when the vehicle was waiting in traffic and filled it with flames.
“The roof of the bus was blown away. Pieces of other people’s flesh hit my head and covered my clothes,” he said from a city hospital bed, where he was being treated for a minor head injury. He declined to say whom he worked for.
As ambulances transported victims from the bus blast, a second bomb carried on a motorcycle went off in a nearby commercial district, killing several more people, said Zainul Haq, a city police official. Two military caps were visible inside one of several cars badly damaged in the second explosion. Cheema said a total of 25 people had died and 70 more were wounded and that initial investigations indicated that the bombings were suicide attacks.
Officials said it was too early to say who was responsible for the blasts.
However, Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz ul-Haq said the attacks could be a reaction to the war in Afghanistan and Pakistani operations against militants in their strongholds near the Afghan frontier.
“This is all probably because of the situation presently in Afghanistan and in Waziristan,” Haq said on Dawn News television. “We are the front line state in the war against terror, and we are suffering the most.” Pakistan has witnessed scores of bombings and other acts of terrorism since siding with the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Officials have blamed pro-Taleban and Al-Qaeda elements for much of the violence.
