Seven perish in Charsadda car blast

WAJID ALI AFRIDI and IBRAHIM KHAN KHAIL
CHARSADDA - At least seven persons were killed and nine others got injured due to a bomb explosion here at Shabqadar on Monday morning.
The blast took place in a pickup that was on its way from Shabqadar town of Charsadda district to Ambar, a village adjacent to Mohmand Agency. The explosion occurred when the driver stopped the vehicle at a petrol pump outside the town. The deceased included the driver of the vehicle, three children, two women and others. So far, no one has claimed the responsibility for the attack.
District Police Officer Riaz Khan rushed to the site and supervised the rescue activities. He said the preliminary investigation revealed that the conductor of the vehicle had received a packet from one Adnan, which later exploded. It seemed that Adnan was a militant with a fake name, he said, adding efforts were underway to net him.
AFP/Reuters add: Safwat Ghyur, a senior police official from Peshawar, told reporters that three young boys, two women and a male driver who were sitting in the vehicle were killed in the blast. Hospital officials put the injured toll at 10.
It was a time-device. Somebody gave baggage to a passenger and the device was hidden in that baggage, Ghyur said in remarks broadcast on a local TV.
District police chief Mohammad Riaz Khan told AFP that the bomb was planted in a pick-up truck carrying about 20 people, and said that one of the injured men later died on his way to hospital, taking the death toll to seven.
Eyewitness Ali Rehman told AFP by telephone from the scene that he had been travelling in the doomed vehicle along with about 19 other people, but had stepped away for a drink.
I was sitting in the open portion of the vehicle when it stopped for refuelling. I went to drink a glass of water, and then there was a huge blast. I fell on the ground, he said.
I see blood and body parts everywhere. Pieces of flesh are scattered on the ground, he added.
A Taliban commander in Mohmand called an AFP reporter in Peshawar and claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Our target was the lashkar (militia) people. The people sitting in the vehicle were from Ambar. These people attacked Taliban, said Qari Shakeel from an undisclosed location.
Police would not immediately comment on the motives for the blast.
A Taliban spokesman from the valley said his men would soon step up attacks.
We stopped our activity for a few days but will resume during or after Ramadan, the spokesman, Muslim Khan, said by telephone.
In Swat, the security forces killed 13 militants and apprehended 16 others in different parts of Swat and Buner during search and clearance operation on Monday, while three dead bodies were recovered form Tindo Dog area.
Sources revealed that the security forces on a tip-off apprehended three suspects from Dagai and Chufaryal areas, while five others were nabbed from Fatehpoor, Swat. The security forces also conducted search operation in Shahee Sar near Sar Qala in Buner and killed seven militants, besides destroying their headquarter. An improvised explosive device was also defused in Sir Qala area during search operation.
Monitoring Desk adds: The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for two weekend suicide bombings in the northwestern Swat Valley, saying Monday the blasts were a message to a visiting US envoy that they remained strong despite recent Pakistan Army gains there, reports The Washington Post.
A Swat Taliban spokesman called an American news agency from an unidentified location Monday to say they timed the attacks to coincide with the visit of US envoy Richard Holbrooke, who has been tasked with pressing Islamabad to crackdown on extremists threatening Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The bombings were a gift to Holbrooke, Muslim Khan said. The Taliban cannot be eliminated.
Taliban commander Qari Saifullah, who also has links to Al-Qaeda, told police he had been wounded in an American missile strike in South Waziristan, said two police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information. It was unclear if it was the same strike believed to have killed Mehsud.
Muslim Khan, the Swat Taliban spokesman, claimed in his call that the weekend bombings in the Valley were avenging the alleged killings of Taliban in army custody.
Lt-Col Akhtar Abbas, an army commander in Swat, denied the army was killing militants in custody and speculated that the Taliban remnants were likely slaying wounded comrades rather than leave them behind to be captured and give up information to government forces.
Abbas said the suicide bombings were a sign of the Talibans frustration - not their strength.
They are on the run. They are in hiding. God willing, we will wipe them out completely, he said.