RAWALPINDI: A suicide bomber blew up at a busy bus terminal near the Pakistani capital yesterday, killing at least nine people and wounding 18 more, officials said.
The blast came as Pakistan’s leaders sought to end a political crisis that has raised doubts about their focus on fighting militants blamed for a string of similar bombings in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan.
TV images from the city of Rawalpindi showed rescue workers helping the wounded to ambulances while gloved investigators picked debris from a darkened street among several badly damaged cars and minibuses.
City police official Nasir Durrani said rescue workers recovered 10 corpses from the scene, including remains believed to be those of the bomber.
Officials had warned of possible suicide attacks in Pakistani cities in the runup to recent anti-government protests.
A final mass rally planned for the capital Islamabad was called off after the government agreed to demands to restore senior judges ousted from the Supreme Court.
Rahman Malik, the head of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, said it was unclear if the bomber deliberately targeted the teeming bus terminal that was hit late yesterday or if the explosives went off prematurely.
No group claimed responsibility and there was no indication of what other target the bomber may have been heading for.
Meanwhile, Taleban militants in northwest Pakistan yesterday destroyed 14 trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan, police said, the latest in a series of strikes.
Two more trucks also laden with goods were damaged when the militants, armed with automatic weapons, rockets and petrol bombs, attacked Al-Faisal terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar city.
The trucks had stopped at the terminal before heading into Afghanistan, a route which passes through Khyber area.
“A group of about 50 Taleban militants fired rockets and petrol bombs at Al-Faisal trucking terminal and destroyed 14 trucks completely,” local police official Fazal Wahid told AFP.
Two other trucks were partially burned, he said, adding the militants fled to the neighboring tribal area when police arrived. A previous militant attack on another nearby terminal early Sunday destroyed eight trucks, damaged a dozen others and left two drivers wounded.
Militants in the rugged tribal area have staged spectacular attacks in recent months on NATO supply depots.
