Rawalpindi, Nov 2 (Inditop.com) At least 22 people were killed Monday when a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle triggered a massive explosion near a luxury hotel and a bank in this garrison city adjacent to capital Islamabad. The blast occurred barely 500 metres from the Pakistani Army Headquarters, which had come under Taliban attack last month.
Hospital sources said 22 people were killed while about two dozen, including an Army major, were wounded when the blast occurred at 10.40 a.m., Geo TV reported. Some of those wounded were in critical condition.
“The suicide bomber came on a motorcycle and blew up close to people gathered to get salaries. We found parts of a suicide vest and some body parts of the suicide attacker,” senior police official Aslam Tarin told reporters.
The blast rocked Shalimar Hotel behind Pearl Continental Hotel, located on Mall Road in the cantonment area of Rawalpindi.
Most of the victims were reported to be security forces personnel.
Sajid Khan, a witness, told mediapersons that he was driving through the area when he heard the explosion.
“It was a huge blast. It was close to the General Post Office Chowk (roundabout) on Mall Road. I saw smoke rising from one of the buildings. I sped up to escape,” Khan was quoted as saying.
The explosion damaged several cars waiting at a traffic signal.
“When I reached the scene there were dead and wounded people lying everywhere,” DPA quoted another witness Shaukat Ali as saying.
“Some bodies did not have heads and some were missing legs. People covered the women whose clothes were burnt by the explosion. It was so shameful.”
The heavily fortified Pakistani Army’s General Headquarters had come under attack Oct 10 when 10 terrorists in military uniform laid siege to it. At least 19 people, including nine raiders, died in the 22-hour standoff. One militant was arrested.
The latest wave of Islamist militant violence in Pakistan started with a suicide bombing at the offices of the UN World Food Programme in Islamabad Oct 5. Five employees of the agency were killed.
On Oct 15, gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed two police academies and the offices of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore. A car bomber struck at a police station in the northwestern town of Kohat. At least 38 people including 11 insurgents were killed in a single day.
A twin suicide bombing Oct 20 at the International Islamic University in Islamabad killed seven people.
On Oct 22, Brigadier Moinuddin Ahmed, who was the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, was gunned down in Islamabad along with another soldier.
A day later, 25 people were killed and 27 injured in a series of blasts across Pakistan. Eighteen people died in a landmine explosion in Mohmand Agency while seven were killed when a suicide bomber struck at an air force base in Attock district. Eight people were injured in a bombing in Peshawar.
Oct 28 saw the worst terror attack in Pakistan this year when over 110 people were killed in a massive bombing in a crowded market of Peshawar.
