Blast in Pakistan's Peshawar kills policeman & 7 others

14 Nov 2009 12:10:20 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Explosion near police checkpost kills constable

* Police say 15 wounded

(Adds casualties, background)

By Alamgir Bitani

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A suspected suicide car-bomber set off explosives near a police checkpost in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Saturday, killing a policeman and wounding 15 people, police said.

The city, near the Afghan border, has been targeted several times since the army began an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month and militants stepped up retaliatory attacks.

The blast came a day after a suicide car-bomber attacked an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency in the northwestern city, killing 17 people. [ID:nSP502529]

"One of our constables has been killed and 15 people have been wounded. We're getting information," said a police official in the area.

A city resident said he had seen two bodies at the scene while Dawn television said seven people had been killed.

The army went on the offensive in South Waziristan on the Afghan border last month, aiming to root out Pakistani Taliban militants who stepped up their war on the security forces in 2007.

The militants have responded with intensified attacks in towns and cities, killing several hundred people.

The United States, weighing options as it struggles to stabilise Afghanistan, says Pakistani action against militants in border enclaves is vital for its Afghan effort. (For full coverage of Pakistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK]) (Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony; Writing by Robert Birsel, editing by Mark Trevelyan)


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On Friday, a suicide car bomb exploded at an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency in Peshawar, killing 17 people. [ID:nSP502529]

The Taliban said it carried out that attack, as well as a suicide bombing at a police station in the northwestern town of Bannu on Friday, in which seven people were killed.

"We will carry out similar attacks in other parts of the country," Qari Hussain Mehsud, a senior Pakistani Taliban member and a cousin of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, told Reuters by telephone. Hussain is known as "the mentor of suicide bombers".