FAISALABAD – Militants set off a car-bomb at a compressed natural gas (CNG) station in the Civil Lines area of Faisalabad on Tuesday killing 25 people, many of whom were lined up to fill up their cars, police said. The car-bomb set off gas cylinders, causing a big explosion that left a 7-foot deep and 15-foot wide crater in the ground and destroyed or severely damaged nearby buildings and reduced numerous vehicles to blackened shells. Around 40 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the blast, an officer of the bomb disposal squad said.
“Many of those killed were people waiting to get their cars filled,” district police chief Aftab Cheema said. More than 125 people were wounded in the blast and were taken to the district headquarters hospital and Allied Hospital, he said. Police cordoned off the area and reportedly arrested a suspect who was injured in the incident.
Cheema declined to speculate on the militants’ target but said a “sensitive organisation” had an office close to the filling station. TV channels reported that the country’s main police investigation agency had an office nearby. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan later claimed responsibility saying the attack was in retaliation for the killing of one of their commanders in the city, referring to the killing of a senior Pakistani Taliban member in a shootout with police in Faisalabad last year.
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) staff also rushed to the scene and controlled gas leaks from cylinders of the damaged vehicles and the CNG station.
The damage could have been much worse if gas leaks had not been plugged quickly as around 100 cylinders filled with gas lay nearby and some had started leaking, police sources said. Emergency was declared at both hospitals and a large number of people gathered to donate blood to the victims. The rescue operation continued but no more casualties were expected, a Rescue 1122 spokesman said.
According to media reports, Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said the target of the blast was an office of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Ahsan said the blast was revenge for the killing of a militant by security forces in Faisalabad last year.More than 25 persons including a lady officer of PIA were killed, while more than one hundred persons injured eight of them seriously in a Powerful explosion on Tuesday at CNG Station situated near offices of intelligence agencies in Civil Lines area President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other political leaders condemned the incident.
