Army training centre hit, 36 killed

Pakistani Taliban claim bomber was a soldier.

MARDAN:

In an incident being termed a retaliation to the ongoing operation in Mohmand Agency, a suicide bombing at a Pakistan Army training centre in Mardan killed 36 cadets on Thursday.

“We are sure that the deadly attack on the army training centre was in retaliation to the current war on terror in Mohmand tribal agency,” an official told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.

“Other terrorist attacks in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during recent weeks were also carried out by the TTP to avenge losses they have suffered in the military operation,” the source added.

The terrorist activities by the Taliban indicate the success of the Pakistan Army in its  military operation which is in progress in the tribal areas of Mohmand tribal region.

Police said that a teenage bomber dressed in a school uniform blew himself up inside the Punjab Regiment Centre in Mardan, targeting cadets taking part in morning drills.

It was one of the worst attacks on security forces in recent months.

The blast also injured 35 soldiers, when the child-bomber triggered explosives planted inside his school bag. The wounded men were shifted to military hospitals in Peshawar and Rawalpindi by army helicopters.

There were conflicting reports about the identity of the bomber. The army and police said he was a teenager in a school uniform, but the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed he was a soldier at a camp in Mardan town who has himself  volunteered for the attack.

Military sources have rejected the Taliban claim and said that the bomber was a young boy who was pretending to be a school student.

Medical experts also confirmed the police and military reports, The Express Tribune has learnt.

But Taliban spokesperson Ahsanullah Ahsan told a foreign news agency by telephone on Thursday that the bomber was a soldier in Mardan who had approached the TTP and said he wanted to sacrifice his life “for Islam.”

In May 2008, the Punjab Regiment Centre lost four soldiers among 11 people who died when a suicide bomber blew himself up at one up at one of the centre’s gates. Similarly, a young bomber killed about 35 Pakistani army recruits training at Dargai, north of Mardan, in November 2006.

More then 100 Taliban have so far been killed during the current military operation in Mohmand against the militants since January 27.

An official source told The Express Tribune that the Taliban were on the run due to the military operation. Many of them are moving towards adjoining Bajaur and Khyber Agencies, and some parts of the Malakand mountainous regions.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2011.