At least 8 killed in Dera Islmail Khan blast

Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad, Jun 14 (PTI) At least eight persons were
killed and over 20 injured Sunday when a bomb went off in a
busy market in the restive northwestern Pakistani city of Dera
Islamil Khan.

The blast occurred at Pir Market, which is located near
a bus station. The bomb was planted in a rickshaw and went off
at a time when a large number of people were present in the
market, officials said.

District Coordination Officer Mohsin Shah told reporters
that eight persons were killed and over 20 injured in the
blast. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital by people
in private vehicles. Ambulances also rushed to the site.

There were also reports of unidentified persons
resorting to firing soon after the explosion.

According to officials, about five to six kgs of
explosives were used in the bomb.

ARY news channel quoted an official as saying that a
suspect was arrested from the blast site.

No group claimed responsibility for the blast.

Dera Ismail Khan has witnessed several bomb attacks on
security forces and police. The city has also been hit by
sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shias in recent months.

Pakistan has been hit by a string of deadly bomb blasts
in recent weeks, many of them claimed by the Taliban as a
revenge for the military offensive against them across the
northwest of the country.

Last week, a five-star hotel frequented by foreigners
was targeted by suicide attackers in the NWFP capital of
Peshawar, killing over 15 people.

Days after the car bombing of the Pearl Continental,
militants on Friday attacked the heavily-guarded home of
Pakistan's army commander heading the military offensive
against Taliban, leaving two persons wounded.

Prominent anti-Taliban cleric Maulana Sarfraz Naeemi,
and 10 others were killed and nearly 100 injured when suicide
bombers struck at the compound of a religious group in Lahore
and a mosque in an army supply depot in northwestern Pakistani
city of Nowshera on Friday.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for several of
the recent suicide attacks in the country, including the
bombing of Pearl Continental hotel.

They cited bombing of seminaries in Hangu and Orakzai
several days ago by security forces as the reason for
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan carrying out an attack at the hotel.
PTI RHL WAJ
HMK
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