Taliban on Friday claimed their first major attack to “avenge” Osama bin Laden’s killing in a US raid in Abbottabad as over 80 people, mostly Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel, were killed and 100 others injured in two simultaneous suicide bombings at the FC headquarter in Shabqadar area of Peshawar’s Charsadda tehsil.
Peshawar police chief Liaqat Ali Khan said there was little chance that the attack had been carried out in retaliation to Laden’s assassination. However, the Taliban, led by Hakimullah Mehsud, claimed responsibility for both the attacks and called it the first major attack to “avenge Osama bin Laden’s assassination”. The condition of those injured in the attacks was said to be critical, with officials saying that the casualties could rise. Witnesses and senior FC and police officials said the first explosion occurred when a suicide bomber blew himself up close to a large number of newly-trained recruits boarding vehicles to leave for their homes.
The second attack followed a few minutes later when the FC recruits were busy tending to their injured colleagues. “Both explosions occurred within five minutes of each other,” FC Commandant Akbar Khan Hoti and the Peshawar CCPO told reporters. Officials said 825 FC recruits, who had completed their training recently, had been permitted to go home on a 10-day leave. They were boarding buses for departure when the suicide explosions occurred. “The explosions were so severe that more than 60 people were killed on the spot,” said Nazar Muhammad, who runs a shop in the area.
He said both explosions were followed by continuous firing in the air. Soon after the attacks, FC personnel rushed to the site and took the bodies to hospitals across the city. Reports said around 126 injured people were taken to Lady Reading Hospital, 20 of who succumbed to their injuries. Khan put the toll at 69, while FC Commandant Akbar Khan Hoti said 59 people, including 56 FC personnel, had been killed. Beside the loss of precious human life, around 15 vehicles and several shops in the vicinity were also destroyed in the explosions. Khan called the attacks “militants’ reaction to the ongoing operation in Mohmand”.
The US and Britain condemned the attack. State Department says attack highlights existential threat posed by militants to Pakistan. “These attacks were cowardly and indiscriminate, killing many innocent bystanders and targeting those who serve to protect Pakistan,” UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said. “They prove once again that such extremist groups have no regard for the value of human life.”
