Terror revisits Peshawar: 5 killed in suicide attack targeting FC convoy

DIG FC among 21 injured in the attack claimed by TTP .

PESHAWAR:

A deadly car bombing targeting a senior military official broke a relatively longer lull in militant violence in the country on Tuesday. DIG Frontier Corps Brigadier Khalid Javed  survived the vehicle-borne suicide attack that killed five people on Saddar Road near Peshawar press club early in the morning.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack that also left 21 people wounded, calling it a revenge for the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan Agency.

“The suicide bomber was driving a Suzuki Mehran rigged with explosives and his target was the FC convoy,” SSP Operations Najeebur Rehman told The Express Tribune.

The bomber was waiting by the roadside and as soon as the FC convoy approached he detonated the explosives packed in his car. At least three vehicles, including one belonging to the FC, were destroyed in the blast.

Broken glass, blood-stained sandals and human limbs littered the scene of the explosion, where one vehicle was reduced to a heap of mangled metal while the wreck of another smouldered.

An official from the military’s media wing told The Express Tribune that initially 10 injured and one dead were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH). Of the injured, eight were FC personnel, one was policeman and one was civilian. He added that three dead – including an FC soldier – and eight injured were driven to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

Brigadier Khalid is also said to be among the injured, but his condition is stable.

Medics at the LRH identified the dead as Zareen Khan Afridi (FC soldier) and passersby Saba Gul and Muhammad Zahir Khan. Another injured, Lal Zada, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. They added that 11 injured, including two FC men, were received at the LRH.

Soon after the bombing, FC troops started firing gunshots into the air to stave off any subsequent threat which caused panic among residents of the cantonment area.

Witness Fazale Karim said that he was walking past the area when the attack took place. “There was a deafening boom and a pall of dust and thick black smoke enveloped the area. When the smoke cleared FC men started firing randomly into the air. We could see people lying on the ground but could not help,” he told The Express Tribune.

Factory worker Inayatullah, who also received shrapnel wounds, said he was travelling in a passenger van which was driving behind the military convoy when the bomber struck. “I saw a military jeep and suddenly there was a huge explosion. I lost consciousness soon after and when I came to my senses I found myself here,” he told The Express Tribune from his hospital bed.

The head of the Bomb Disposal Unit, AIG Shafqat Malik, also confirmed that it was a suicide attack. “The car was packed with around 45 kilos of explosives along with artillery shells,” he said, adding that luckily it was not a crowded area otherwise the death toll would have been much higher. The TTP faction led by Mullah Fazlullah claimed responsibility for the attack, vowing revenge against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) for Operation Zarb-e-Azb.

Speaking to AFP by telephone, the group’s spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said: “We claim responsibility for Tuesday’s Peshawar attack. We have no loss from Operation Zarb-e-Azab.” He claimed that his group was still as active as the past and “will show the mirror to the PML-N as we showed the ANP [Awami National Party].”

The ANP ruled Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa from 2008-2013 and was regularly targeted by the Taliban who killed hundreds of its workers and some senior figures. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2014.