ISLAMABAD — Fresh violence left 23 people, including four soldiers, dead yesterday in an escalation of the bloody unrest that has rocked Pakistan over the past month.
The military said militants fired a barrage of rockets at security check-posts and then attacked one of them with automatic weapons overnight in a restive tribal district near the Afghan border.
“The miscreants fired 50 to 60 rockets at five posts before attacking one of the posts with automatic weapons in Dosali, in the North Waziristan tribal district,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad told AFP.
Fierce fighting ensued and the troops repelled the attackers, killing 10 rebels, Arshad said, adding that four soldiers also died in the battle.
About 50 km to the north, in Parachinar town, a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a taxi stand yesterday, killing nine civilians.
Several cars and shops were also damaged in the attack, which officials linked to the wave of unrest gripping the country since the July 9-10 army raid on the pro-Taleban Red Mosque in Islamabad.
Local administration official Sahibzada Anis said the bomber probably detonated his payload prematurely after he had a roadside accident with another car near the taxi stand on a main road in Parachinar.
“He detonated himself after the accident fearing he could be arrested by the police,” Anis said, adding that authorities had ordered an investigation into the attack.
Local official Mujtaba Asghar said the attack took place at a taxi stand in front of a car showroom in the town, some 240 km west of Islamabad.
“Some public transport vehicles were parked on the road in front of the showroom when the bomber rammed his car and exploded,” said Asghar.
The devastating blast damaged several vehicles and five shops.
“Human limbs and pieces of flesh were scattered around the site,” witness Mohammad Sajjad said.
A doctor at Parachinar’s government hospital, Hanif Jan, said nine people were killed and 35 wounded, some critically.
“Five people died on the spot while four died in the hospital,” Jan told AFP, adding that two critically wounded people had been moved to a hospital in the provincial capital Peshawar.
Officials said the violence triggered by the July 10 killing of Red Mosque cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi in the army raid has claimed more than 230 lives.
More than 100 people, mostly militants hiding in the mosque, were killed in the operation to clear it. Interior Ministry officials said there had been at least 13 suicide attacks since the mosque operation, including two in Islamabad — one targeting a rally by the country’s chief justice and the other a police contingent.
Pakistan has come under mounting pressure from the United States and its European allies to act decisively against Taleban militants allegedly using its tribal region for attacks across the border.
Pakistan has strengthened its military presence in the region following US intelligence warning that Al-Qaeda was regrouping in the tribal regions on its side of the border and planning attacks on the United States.
Islamabad has also denied charges by Washington that the border regions have become a safe haven for an Al-Qaeda resurgence.
