PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A roadside bomb ripped through a Pakistan air force bus in the northwestern city of Peshawar yesterday, killing 13 people as fighting with Taleban militants raged nearby along the Afghan border.
A Taleban spokesman claimed responsibility for the blast, saying that it was carried out in revenge for military operations in the troubled Bajaur tribal region in which more than 150 people have been killed in the past week.
The violence added to the instability in the nuclear-armed nation, with lawmakers in restive North-West Frontier Province also approving the first step in the impeachment of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf.
The bomb destroyed the bus and two cars as they crossed a bridge leading to the semi-autonomous tribal belt. The mangled wreckage of the bus lay in a large crater, and the scene was spattered with blood, an AFP photographer said.
“Thirteen dead bodies and 15 injured have now been brought here,” said Khan Abbas, a police official deployed to Peshawar’s main hospital. A Pakistan air force spokesman said the vehicle was transporting rations from the Badaber base on the outskirts of the city to Peshawar when it was hit by the bomb.
A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan, the country’s main umbrella group of Taleban organizations, warned of more attacks to come. “We accept the responsibility for this attack,” spokesman Maulvi Omar told AFP by telephone from an unknown location. It is a reaction to Bajaur and other operations and if these are not stopped then we will launch more attacks.”
“This is the first attack and if the operation is not stopped, more attacks will be carried out. You cannot imagine what atrocities the government is committing against innocent women and children.”
Helicopter gunships again pounded suspected militant hide-outs in Bajaur yesterday and officials said that at least six civilians, including an 11-year-old boy, were killed when shells hit their houses.
