ISLAMABAD: At least 71 people were killed and over 100 injured when two men blew themselves up yesterday outside Pakistan’s main defense industry complex at Wah, 30 km northwest of the capital Islamabad. Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility.
The attackers blew themselves up almost simultaneously outside two gates of the sprawling factory complex, one of the country’s most sensitive installations, during a shift change. The bombers were on foot and milled around the employees of Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF).
The POF is a well-fortified weapons-manufacturing facility, employing over 40,000 skilled workers. It is a cluster of about 20 industrial units that produces artillery, tank and anti-aircraft ammunition for the Pakistan’s armed forces. The complex is near the ancient city of Taxila.
Rawalpindi police chief Nasir Durrani said both men first tried to enter the complex through different gates, failing which they set off explosives strapped to their bodies.
“There were bodies lying everywhere and wounded people soaked in blood were screaming for help,” said the manager of a petrol station near the complex. “Many of the wounded were either without legs or hands. I could see body parts hanging on trees,” he said.
Factory worker Riaz Hussain said most of the victims were staff joining the afternoon shift. “I was working in the factory when I heard one blast and then another. They were huge. Security people then immediately surrounded the place and we were not allowed to go out,” he said.
A Pakistani Taleban spokesman said the blasts were in retaliation for military operations against militants in the northwestern region of Bajaur, on the Afghan border.
“If it doesn’t stop we will continue such attacks,” Taleban spokesman Maulvi Omar said by telephone. “The Wah factory is a killer factory where arms are being produced to kill our women and children,” he said.
Pakistani Taleban said last week they bombed an air force bus in Peshawar that killed 13 people. That blast was in retaliation for military operations in the northwest.
In the evening, police detained three people and seized a suicide jacket and a remote control.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and said terrorists were Pakistan’s biggest enemy.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated in a statement his “rejection of such indiscriminate and reprehensible acts of terrorism” and extended his condolences to the families of the victims and to the government of Pakistan.
US President George W. Bush thanked former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for efforts in fighting terrorism and called Gilani to pledge support for going after extremists, the White House said.
“President Bush expressed to Prime Minister Gilani the United States’ strong commitment to working with the prime minister and the government of Pakistan to address the ongoing battle against extremists,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
— With input from agencies
