PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a Pakistan army training base in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least 35 soldiers and wounding several others, government officials said.
A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media, said the suicide attacker had struck the army’s main training center, killing 35 in the high-security area of Dargai, a town about 60 miles north of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Another government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, confirmed that at least 20 soldiers were killed, and the government believed that the attack was a suicide bombing.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan confirmed that an incident had occurred at the base, but did not elaborate.
“Something happened there, but we don’t have any details,” he said.
A suicide bomber has blown himself up at an army parade ground in north-west Pakistan, killing at least 35 soldiers, officials say.
About 20 people were wounded in the attack, which happened at a training ground in the town of Dargai in North West Frontier province.
Dargai is said to be a stronghold of a pro-Taleban militant group.
An eyewitness, Aurangzeb, told the BBC he saw soldiers picking up scattered body parts minutes after the explosion.
“The victims were dying. Their shoes and caps were scattered all over the place,” he said.
It appeared that most of the men who died were military recruits who had been doing morning exercises.
“This is a terrorist act that appears to be a suicide bombing and we are investigating,” military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
The BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says Dargai, located close to the Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal region, is a stronghold of a pro-Taleban movement that has been banned by the government.
Last month, an air strike on a religious school run by the group near the Afghan border killed 80 people.
Tribesmen in the area had rallied against Islamabad’s alliance with the US after the air strike.
President Pervez Musharraf said the 80 people killed in the air strike were militants, not students as protesters say. Pakistan has deployed nearly 80,000 troops along the border to hunt militants who sought refuge after the ousting of the Taleban in Afghanistan in 2001.
At least it proves that the people killed in the Bajour incident were miltants or militant sympathizers else there wouldnt have been such a vile response from them so fast.
It doesnt prove that at all!! how about relatives of the kids killed in Bajour trapped by extremists? tribals may take revenge of killing their kids too.. what u expect love for the army?
It's time Musharraf gave some Bugti-like treatment to these tribal terrorists!
It's not necessarily tribals that have carried this out. If it is the tribals, it's the banned Islamists from Bajour most likely. But I would not rule out uzbekis are Northern Alliance or some foreigners doing this. Either way, whichever outfit is responsible needs to be dealt with severely. By this I mean the whole outfit, not just the perpetrators of this act. Normally, I dont believe in collective punishment, but in the case of the filth that did this, and the fact that they were openly gloating about attacking pak troops, the whole outfit needs to be as quickly dismembered as possible.
If the shoe fits..Attack on madrassah occurs, now the revenge attack. Are the two related, most definitely. So whoever was killed in the Madrassah was related in some way to the filth that was capable of doing this. That is enough proof. One good thing to come out of this, is that Pakistani Army has carte blanche to go on a scorched earth policy in the trouble areas now as far as I'm concerned. Let's see how long the Islamists last then.
the soldiers lives have been needlessly lost just like the victims of the bajour attack. may allah(swt) bless them all and lets hope these incidents stop
^^ the attack in Bajour was necessary to rid Pakistan of extremist elements that were openly defying government orders to cease terrorist activities on Paki soil.
:) ^^ i was fully expecting that from you road!
some of us are not convinced that all these men were terrorists. there are many ways of dealing with situations such as bajour, turning a whole region against the army is not one of them.
Newspaper such as Jang and others gave details of all the 80 lives taken .. starts from boys age 6 and onwards along with their parents and other details.. may be u want to see what u like.. did u see the payment recipts of the dollars Much & Co got that he claimed he received for capturing and killing taliban and others as climed in his book!
No pictures, no child coffins and sectarian bigots head of this "school". Also, as Saleem said in another thread the Bajur attack happened at 5am in the morning - hardly a time to be teaching school kids.
There are now reports that this attack on the soldiers was possibly masterminded by Afghan intelligence. If that is the case, I hope the ISI is unleashed across that country to exact a ferocious response and teach the Afghans a hard lesson.
^^ Degas and Vroom:
If they were innocent kids, what they were doing in madrassa during dark hours of 5 am in the morning?
Sunrise time in that area is 6-30 am and all innocents of Bajour should have been sleeping. Does Bajour kids go to Madrassa at night and study in dark?
Sunrise time in that area is 6-30 am and all innocents of Bajour should have been sleeping. Does Bajour kids go to Madrassa at night and study in dark?
Can you answer?
damn, i never thought about the timing of the bomb attack