Peshawar, October 13: A devastating suicide bomb hit northwest Pakistan killing 41 people on Monday, as the military geared up for an assault on Taliban rebels blamed for increasingly bloody and brazen attacks.
The bomber, reported to be aged about 13, flung himself at a military convoy passing through a busy market in Shangla, a northwest district near Swat where the army claimed to have flushed out Taliban rebels after a fierce offensive.
But Islamist extremist groups appear far from quashed, with an audacious raid on army headquarters over the weekend leaving 23 people dead and underscoring the vulnerability of the nuclear-armed nation.
At least 116 people have been killed in a series of devastating blasts and attacks in Pakistan in the last four days.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Shangla blast, but the suicide bombing bore all the hallmarks of a TTP strike, and hit in a one-time stronghold of fugitive Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.
“Forty-one people were killed and 45 were injured in the suicide blast,” said Mian Iftekhar Hussain, provincial information minister.
A spokesman from the Swat Media Centre said that six soldiers were among those killed when the young suicide bomber on foot stuck a paramilitary convoy passing through a security checkpost in a crowded bazaar in Alpuri town.
“When he blew himself up, some of the trucks carrying ammunition were also hit and the ammunition exploded, causes more human losses,” the spokesman said. “He was 13 or 14 years old, according to our investigations so far.”
The military launched their offensive in and around Swat valley in April after Taliban insurgents bent on imposing a harsh brand of Islamic law advanced to within 100km of Islamabad.
The army says that it is now ready for a full-scale offensive on the Pakistani Taliban seat of power in South Waziristan, a rugged mountainous region bordering Afghanistan which lies outside direct government control.
“It is now a matter of military judgement, what is the appropriate timing (and) in the best national interests,” military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.
In total, nine militants, 11 soldiers and three hostages were killed in the crisis that unfolded at the heart of the military establishment in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which ended with a commando raid on Sunday. “Their target was to take hostage senior officers of the GHQ (General Headquarters) and make demands,” Abbas said.
-Agencies