Sad 
Twin bombings at Pakistan paramilitary base ‘kill 69’
A twin bomb attack on a paramilitary force academy in north-west Pakistan has killed 69 people, police say.
A number of people were hurt in the blast at the training centre in Shabqadar, Charsadda district.
There are reports that one of the blasts was carried out by a suicide bomber on a motorbike and the second bomb was planted.
The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the attack to avenge the death of Osama Bin Laden earlier this month.
‘Recruits’
It happened as newly trained cadets from the Frontier Corps were getting into buses for a short leave after completing their course.
“I was sitting in a van waiting for my colleagues. We were in plain clothes and we were happy we were going to see our families,” Ahmad Ali, a wounded paramilitary policeman, told AFP news agency.
"I heard someone shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ [God is great] and then I heard a huge blast. I was hit by something in my back shoulder.
“In the meantime I heard another blast and I jumped out of the van. I felt that I was injured and bleeding.”
Most of the victims - 65 - were recruits, but there were also civilian casualties, officials say.
The injured were taken to a local hospital and security forces sealed off the area.
A number of vehicles were destroyed in the blast.
Map
Shabqadar lies on the border with Afghanistan, about 35km (22 miles) north-west of Peshawar.
The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says the security forces have often been the target of such attacks as they fight the Pakistani Taliban across the north-west of the country, but Friday’s bombing is the deadliest attack this year.
He adds that the Pakistani army - which has come under intense scrutiny and criticism over the Bin Laden affair - is likely to point out that this attack is an illustration of the sacrifices it has made in the so-called “war on terror”.
Later on Friday, army chiefs are expected to appear in parliament to explain their actions over the death of the al-Qaeda leader during a US commando raid in Abbottabad on 2 May.
In recent years, Taliban militants have killed hundreds people in bombings and other attacks across Pakistan.
