Upsurge in violence: Grenade attack kills 13 in Peshawar cinema

Some 25 people also wounded in the attack on Shama Cinema.

PESHAWAR:

An unidentified man lobbed three hand-grenades into a cinema house during the screening of a Pashto film Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 13 people and wounding another 25. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on Shama Cinema, located at the busy Bacha Khan Chowk.

It was the second attack on a cinema house in Peshawar this month. The attacker threw three hand grenades one after the other into the main hall of the cinema during the screening of the Pashto film, ‘Yarana’.

“Officials of the Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) told us that three China-made hand grenades were used in the attack,” Ijaz Khan, the capital city police officer (CCPO), told The Express Tribune. The blasts, according to him, occurred in quick succession around 3.40pm.

Ijaz Khan said that after a similar attack at Picture House Cinema on February 3, law enforcement agencies assessed the security of all the city’s cinema houses and accordingly put out a security advisory on them.

“They [the managements] said they would be responsible for security at their cinemas and that they will body search every cinemagoer before letting him in and install CCTV cameras and metal detectors,” he added.

An official of BDU told The Express Tribune that the grenades were probably hurled by one man who was seated somewhere in the back of the hall.

“One of the grenades landed in the middle of the hall, killing and injuring people and causing a stampede. When panicked people rushed towards the exit, the attacker lobbed two more grenades,” he added. At least 70 people were inside the hall when the attack took place.

Eyewitness Nasratullah, a pushcart owner, said that he was selling popcorn outside Shama Cinema when the first blast took place. “It wasn’t loud. We thought the explosion might have occurred at least a kilometre away,” he told The Express Tribune. “Then two more blasts followed and I saw three men rushing out with blood stains on their faces.”

Tawab Gul, an injured cinemagoer, said that the impact of the first blast left him flat on the ground. “As people rushed to the exit, two more blasts occurred. I felt too weak to move but was unable to understand what was happening,” he added.

The casualties were driven to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) where medics said that they have received eight bodies while five injured died during the course of treatment. Some of the 25 injured received at the hospital were said to be in a precarious condition.

Medics added that some of the bodies were in a bad shape and they were having trouble identifying them.

Provincial Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak condemned the attack and announced Rs500,000 in compensation for each of the dead and Rs200,000 each for the injured. He offered sympathies to the bereaved families and said the monetary compensation was just a token of solidarity from his administration.

“The enemies of the nation do not want peace in the country. They are trying to create chaos by sabotaging the recently initiated dialogue process,” the chief minister said in a statement. “Whenever the groundwork is laid for dialogue such terrorist activities are carried out to subvert the process.”

“At a time when dialogue between the government and the Taliban are at a serious stage, such inhuman activities can only be carried out by anti-people elements so that the process could be sabotaged at the initial stage,” he added.

TTP denies responsibility

According to Daily Express, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has disclaimed any knowledge of the perpetrators behind the Shama Cinema attack. In a statement, TTP central spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid said that his group did not carry out the attack and that they condemn it. The Jundullah militant group had claimed responsibility for the February 3 cinema attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2014.