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Policemen stand guard near the site of a suicide bomb attack at the entrance of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra - Source: Reuters -
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A Taliban suicide bomber killed eight people outside a key
Pakistani airforce facility, with officials quick to deny
suggestions the target was linked to the country's nuclear
programme.
The bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body at a
checkpoint outside the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, 75
km northwest of the capital, Islamabad.
Hours later, a car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in the
north-western city of Peshawar, wounding 15 people, two of them
seriously, officials said.
The attacks were launched amid a major army offensive against
Pakistani Taliban militant strongholds in South Waziristan, near
the Afghan border.
The offensive has raised fears the insurgents will step up a
suicide bombing campaign on urban targets.
More than 150 people have been killed in a series of brazen
attacks in the past few weeks.
"Eight people were killed and 13 were wounded, three of them
seriously," said Shaukat Sultan, head of the main government
hospital in Kamra, scene of Friday's airbase attack.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told a cabinet meeting on
Wednesday that the country's nuclear infrastructure was safe and
faced no threat from Taliban militants.
An airforce official quickly dispelled suggestions on Friday that
the Kamra facility was linked to the weapons programme.
"It's nonsense. It's rubbish," the official said.
The bomber struck a day after an army brigadier and his driver were
killed in a drive-by shooting in Islamabad, while at least six
people, including two suicide bombers, died in twin attacks at an
Islamic University in the capital on Tuesday.
More attacks
Analysts have warned of the possibility of more attacks as the
militants come under pressure in South Waziristan, with the Taliban
hoping bloodshed and disruption will cause the government and
ordinary people to lose their appetite for the offensive.
The offensive is a test of the government's determination to tackle
Islamic fundamentalists, and the campaign is being closely followed
by the US and other powers embroiled in Afghanistan.
It is also affecting financial markets, with the benchmark KSE
index falling around six percent this week.
The index rose slightly in the morning session on Friday, but
remained jittery following the Peshawar blast.
"The law and order situation once again got the better of the
market, and investors started selling their shares after the blast
in Peshawar," said Asad Iqbal, managing director at Ismail Iqbal
Securities Ltd.
Remote and rugged South Waziristan, with its rocky mountains and
patchy forests cut through by dry creeks and ravines, is a hub for
militants who flit between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
About 28,000 soldiers are battling an estimated 10,000 hard-core
Taliban, including about 1,000 tough Uzbek fighters and some Arab
al Qaeda members.
The military said 13 militants and two soldiers were killed during
the past 24 hours, though a militant spokesman said they have lost
just three fighters since the offensive began on Saturday.
There was no independence verification of the claims and
counter-claims.
Foreign journalists are not allowed anywhere near the battle zone
and it is dangerous even for Pakistani reporters to visit.
Independent confirmation of casualty figures has been
impossible.
Jacques de Maio, who runs the Swiss-based International Committee
of the Red Cross's operations in the region, said that protection
from the effects of armed violence had become the top priority for
his neutral aid agency in South Waziristan.
It was very hard; he told a UN briefing in Geneva, to reach
uprooted people and the families hosting them.
More than 100,000 civilians have fled the area, with about 32,000
leaving since October 13, the United Nations said.
Some 15 women and children travelling to a wedding were killed when
their vehicle hit a landmine in another volatile tribal region on
the Afghan border, officials said.
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