Army barrack in AJK bombed; 4 troops die

MIRPUR A suicide bomber killed four soldiers and wounded 11 others Wednesday at a military base in Tarar Khal town of Sudhanoti district in Rawalakot sector, police said.
The attacker detonated his explosives outside barracks in Tarar Khal, southeast of Muzaffarabad.
The explosion of high intensity took place at 6:55 am at the laundry of a former military hospital (MDS) and presently an army training school in Tarar Khal, killing four soldiers and wounding 11 others, a police officer said. He said rescue operation was under way and all the injured persons were rushed to the Combined Military Hospital and other medical facilities in Rawalakot.
Those army men who embraced martyrdom in the blast include: Naik Shabaan, Mohammad Asif, Imran Haider and Lance Naik Nasrullah.
The law enforcement agencies cordoned off the entire area after the blast.
The funeral prayers of the martyred persons were offered Wednesday afternoon. AJK President Zulqarnain Khan, Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and GOC Murree also attended the funeral prayers.
Agencies add: It was a suicide attack. The target was the army barracks. We have collected evidence and body parts of the attacker which proves that it was a suicide attack, police official Irfan Masaood Kishvi said.
Sardar Khurshid, another senior police officer in the area, said four soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in the blast.
The terrorists have attacked the Pakistan army and the entire Kashmiri nation condemns this attack, said AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, confirming the toll of four dead and 11 wounded.
A foreign hand is involved in all these incidents. These people are not coming across the line of control but from our western borders, Raja Farooq said. He viewed the attackers are implementing the agenda put up by India.
Wednesdays attack was the fourth suicide bombing in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir since June. On December 27, a bomber killed seven people outside a mosque in Muzaffarabad and analysts warn that the Taliban are extending their reach.
If they are coming from, lets say, these tribal areas, then perhaps the underlying assumption may be that they want to expand their activities to build a greater pressure, said security analyst Hasan Askari.
Militants have killed more than 2,890 people across Pakistan since July 2007, until recently concentrating attacks in the northwest.