- 17 killed as TTP’s Jamaatul Ahrar claims responsibility for suicide bombing at Charsadda courts
- Say attack was carried out to avenge hanging of former Punjab governor’s assassin Mumtaz Qadri
At least 17 people were killed in a suicide bombing in the premises of a local court in Charsadda’s Shabqadar area on Monday.
The Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to journalists, saying the attack was carried out to avenge the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, murderer of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.
The blast left at least 30 people injured, while two police personnel and a woman were among the dead.
Official sources at the Shabqadar Hospital said they received 13 bodies, while the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar received four.
District Police Officer Sohail Khalid said that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
The attacker was intercepted by policemen stationed at the court gate as he was attempting to enter the sessions’ court premises. The cops fired at the attacker who detonated his explosives with a loud bang. At least 17 people, including two policemen were killed while 30 others were wounded in the attack.
Eyewitnesses at the site said they heard firing after a loud blast.
At the time of the explosion, the courts were crowded after a break over the weekend.
Some vehicles parked in the vicinity of the blast site caught fire.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the suicide attack but said such incidents of terrorism would not break the government’s resolve to eliminate the menace from Pakistan.
Shabqadar tehsil is close to Mohmand tribal region, which is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in the northwest, where Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants were said to have carved out strongholds.
The incident comes at a time when law-enforcement agencies are said to be making gains in implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and taking counter-terrorism measures across the country.
A total of 2,159 terrorists have been killed and 1,724 arrested, data from the interior ministry showed, since NAP was launched following the TTP-claimed attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on Dec 16, 2014.
The number of attacks in Pakistan has fallen around 70 per cent, due to a combination of the military offensive against Taliban bases along the Afghan border and government initiatives to tackle militancy, but attacks on security and civilian targets continue to occur occasionally.