The bomb blast left 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide crater at the site of the blast. The blast was so powerful that its bang was heard throughout the city. DPO Crime Range Dr. Rizwan told newsmen that 900 to 1000 kg explosive material was used in the blast.
According to an eye witness, Naeem a white colour car reached the gate of Khosa’s house and exploded with bang.
About ten shops in the market were razed to ground while the house of Zulfiqar Khosa and other houses, mostly Kacha houses, in the surrounding areas of the blast site were damaged.
Soon after the blast, Rescue 1122, and hospital ambulances reached the site and started rescue operation and shifted the injured to DHQ hospital. Emergency was declared in the city’s hospital.
The dead bodies were kept in the eye ward of the DHQ hospital near the emergency ward.
DPO Dr. Rizwan said a committee had been constituted under the supervision of SSP Crime Ranage Chaudhery Liaquat to probe the incident.
27 dead, 50 hurt in DG Khan blast: DIG
Updated at: 1725 PST, Tuesday, December 15, 2009
20 dead, 50 hurt in DG Khan blast: DIG DERA GHAZI KHAN: At least 20 people were killed and 50 other wounded in a bomb blast occurred at the crowded Khosa Market in Dera Ghazi Khan, DIG Mubarak Ali confirmed today.
The house of Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khosa, senior adviser to Punjab’s Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, was also destroyed in the blast. However, luckily, no member of the family was present in the house at the time of blast.
DG Khan commissioner Hasan Iqbal told Geo News the blast took place at the Khosa Market, which is the commercial center of the city. The explosion was so huge that it completely devastated at least 10 shops. While 10 to 12 more shops were slightly damaged.
Following the incident, rescue teams were rushed to the area where relief efforts are under way. The injured were shifted to the government hospital while some were taken to private hospitals also.
Emergency was declared in the civil hospital. However, people are facing multiple problems due to lack of medicines and shortage of paramedical staff.
The commissioner expressed the fear that 20 to 25 people are still buried under the rubble. He further said it was possibly a car blast.
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Blast near Pakistani minister's home, 20 dead
Michael Georgy
ISLAMABAD
Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:52am EST
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A car bomb near the home of a Pakistani provincial government minister killed 20 people on Tuesday, a police official said, in another sign authorities are struggling against Taliban militants bent on grabbing power.
World
Militants who want no Western influence in nuclear-armed Pakistan, which Washington sees as critical in the battle against Islamist hardliners in Afghanistan, have not let up attacks, despite security crackdowns in their strongholds.
The blast took place in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan in a market, the kind of site frequently targeted by militants seeking to inflict maximum casualties.
"It was near a market and several shops have collapsed," said Tariq Gurmani, a resident of the Punjab province town, adding he had seen several wounded people.
The attack was another potent reminder President Asif Ali Zardari's weak civilian government has yet to devise a strategy to defeat militants who want to tightly control society -- with public whippings and executions of those deemed immoral.
"It was a car bomb. About 20 people have been killed and 50 wounded," senior police official Mubarak Ali Athar told reporters.
Militants have killed hundreds of people in bombings since an October clampdown in South Waziristan -- part of what is seen as a global hub for militants -- that authorities said dealt a major blow to the Taliban.
The military has ruled for more than half of Pakistan's 62-year history and no civilian government has ever served out a full term, earning the country the reputation of an unstable state.
The all-powerful army is seen as the institution best able to unite politically turbulent Pakistan during crises, even though military coups have hurt the country's democratic credentials.
BRAZEN ATTACKS BY MILITANTS
But its vulnerability to increasingly daring militants became clear this month when suicide bombers and gunmen killed at least 40 people in an attack on a mosque near army headquarters, 30 minutes from the capital Islamabad.
Pakistan's bloodshed has hurt confidence in an economy in virtual recession. Investors don't expect violence to ease anytime soon and have factored it into trading.
Stocks slid lower on selling toward the end of Tuesday's session after news of the car bomb. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index ended 0.15 percent lower at 9,266.04.
The United States believes Pakistan's military has no intention of trying to seize power, U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus said during a visit to the ally.
In a briefing with Pakistani journalists in Islamabad, Petraeus said Pakistan's military had told him it was not interested in destabilizing the elected civilian government.
"I have seen no indication that (army chief) General Ashfaq Kayani is entertaining such a notion," local newspapers on Tuesday quoted Petraeus as telling reporters at the U.S. ambassador's residence when asked about his meeting with Kayani.
"Whenever we have talked to them they say they are committed to democratically elected civilian government."
Kayani is seen as a professional soldier who has vowed to keep the army out of politics. Zardari, who has been at odds with the military, has called for urgent action to fight the growing threat from the Taliban.
Some militants are fighting the government but others cross into Afghanistan to attack U.S.-led troops from tribal strongholds with forbidding mountain terrain.
Analysts say Pakistan resists pressure to crack down on those types of fighters because it sees them as leverage against the influence of its enemy and fellow nuclear power India in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's APP news agency cited Zardari as saying "extremism and militancy was gnawing society at the core" and the writ of the government must be established "at all costs."
Failure in Afghanistan could seriously damage the presidency of Barack Obama, who is sending 30,000 more troops there.
Pakistan fears there will be dangerous consequences if the United States hastily withdraws from Afghanistan, as it did after the war against Soviet occupation troops ended in 1989, leaving the country to implode into a civil war that eventually saw the Afghan Taliban sweep to power, raising hopes of stability.
(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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ڈی جی خان میں بم دھماکہ، چھبیس ہلاک
عبادالحق
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، لاہور
بم دھماکے کے زخمی(فائل فوٹو)
دھماکے کے زخمیوں کو مقامی ہسپتالوں میں منتقل کیا گیا
حکام کے مطابق جنوبی پنجاب کے شہر ڈیرہ غازی خان کی کھوسہ مارکیٹ میں ہونے والے ایک بم دھماکے میں کم از کم چھبیس افراد ہلاک اور چھپن زخمی ہوگئے ہیں۔
ڈیرہ غازی خان کے ڈی آئی جی مبارک علی اطہر نے بی بی سی سے بات کرتے ہوئے بتایا ہے کہ یہ دھماکہ کھوسہ مارکیٹ میں وزیراعلیٰ پنجاب میاں شہباز شریف کے سینئر مشیر ذوالفقار علی کھوسہ کی رہائش گاہ کے نزدیک ہوا ہے۔
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ دھماکے میں اب تک چھبیس افراد کی ہلاکت کی تصدیق ہوئی ہے جبکہ چھپن لوگ زخمی ہیں جن میں سے دس سے زائد کی حالت تشویشناک ہے۔ ڈی آئی جی کے مطابق یہ ایک کار بم دھماکہ تھا اور بارود سے بھری گاڑی کو کھوسہ مارکیٹ میں کھڑا کیا گیا تھا۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ دھماکے سے آٹھ دکانیں اور مسجد متاثر ہوئی ہیں۔ اس سے قبل کمشنر ڈیرہ غازی خان حسن اقبال نے میڈیا کو بتایا تھا کہ تباہ ہونے والی دوکانوں کے ملبے تلے بیس سے بائیس کے قریب افراد دبے ہوئے ہیں۔
کمشنر ڈیرہ غازی خان کے مطابق دھماکے کے زخمیوں کو ہسپتال منتقل کر دیا گیا ہے، امدادی سرگرمیاں جاری ہیں اور پولیس نے علاقے کو گھیرے میں لے لیا ہے۔
کھوسہ مارکیٹ شہر کی ایک مصروف سڑک پر قائم ہے جہاں عام دنوں میں لوگوں کا کافی رش ہوتا ہے۔
خیال رہے کہ جنوبی پنجاب کے شہر ڈیرہ غازی خان میں اس پہلے بھی شدت پسندی کے متعدد واقعات رونما ہو چکے ہیں۔ رواں سال فروری میں ایک خودکش بم حملے میں بچوں سمیت چوبیس افراد ہلاک جبکہ پنتالیس کے قریب زخمی ہوگئے تھے
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