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Suicide bomber strikes Pak ATS office
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ASIANAGE on 09 October, 2008 04:14:29
 
By Shafqat ali with agency inputs
Islamabad
Oct. 9: Eight people were injured in a suicide car bomb attack on the office of
the Anti-Terrorism Squad on outskirts of the Pakistani capital on Thursday, even
as a joint session of Parliament discussed the strategy in the country’s war
on terror about 20 km away.
A suicide attacker rammed his explosive-laden car into the three-storey office
at 1 pm (local time) in the high-security Police Lines, in a second major
suicide bombing in the Pakistani capital within a span of a month.
According to interior secretary Kamal Shah it was a suicide attack. The
official did not confirm the reports of any death in the attack adding, "only
eight persons have been injured."
Police officials said casualties were limited by the fact that most ATS
personnel had been deployed for security duties related to the special session
of Parliament.
One side of the ATS building collapsed due the powerful blast, which was heard
from several km away and smashed windows of homes in the nearby residential
areas. A thick column of smoke was seen rising from the Police Lines following
the blast, which also scorched trees and destroyed about 20 cars.
Meanwhile, at least 16 people, including four children and four policemen, were
killed and several others injured on Thursday when a roadside bomb went off in
Pakistan’s restive northwest, while a prison van and a school bus were passing
by.
The van was bringing prisoners from a court to jail when it was attacked with a
remote-controlled bomb in Dir Bala area of North West Frontier Province,
state-run PTV reported. A school bus passing through the area was also hit by
the blast.
Sixteen people, including four school children and several prisoners and
policemen, were killed. Local residents took the injured to nearby hospitals in
private vehicles.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The people in Dir district had recently formed a "lashkar" or militia to
protect themselves against the local Taliban forcing militants to leave the
area.
Earlier, two Chinese engineers were kidnapped by militants from Dir in
September and later taken to the restive Swat valley. Taliban spokesperson
Muslim Khan had demanded the release of around 130 militants as a condition to
release the abducted Chinese men.
Also, in a separate incident in southwestern Balochistan province’s capital
Quetta, two armed men riding a motorcycle lobbed a grenade at a car parked
outside a college.
The blast damaged the vehicle though there were no casualties, police officials
said.