PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a military checkpoint in Pakistan’s troubled northwest yesterday, killing at least 27 people.
The explosion demolished the checkpoint and severely damaged an adjacent building housing troops and police, said Farid Khan, a senior police officer in the nearby town of Hangu.
At least 25 members of the security forces as well as two civilians died, Khan said. More than a dozen other people were wounded, including the local police chief, other officials said.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the attack as a “cowardly act of terrorism” and said the government would use an “iron hand” against terrorists and extremists.
Pakistan is under intense international pressure to crack down on an increasingly integrated array of extremist groups blamed for bloody attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Donors on Friday pledged more than $5 billion to shore up Pakistan’s shaky economy and pay for schemes to alleviate poverty and bolster its security forces — twin tracks in a longer-term drive to dry up support for extremism.
Assaults this year in the capital, Islamabad, and on the Sri Lanka cricket team and a police academy in the eastern city of Lahore have fanned fear that militants are expanding across the country and could soon destabilize the state.
The checkpoint hit yesterday is near the Orakzai tribal region, which has emerged in recent months as a major Taleban base. Suicide bombers have targeted community leaders who have sought to rally local tribes against the militants.
An apparent US missile strike reportedly killed 14 suspected militants in Orakzai on April 1, the first such attack in the area since unmanned CIA aircraft stepped up their assault on targets in the tribal belt last year.
