Blast in Nowshera shrine, 10 dead

Published: March 4, 2011
People gather after the bomb blast at the shrine in Nowshera. PHOTO: AFP
NOWSHERA: A bomb attack on a packed mosque in militant-infested northwest Pakistan killed at least ten people and wounded around 30 more as it ripped through Friday prayers, police and medics said.

Hundreds of people were coming out of the mosque or waiting for a charity meal when the blast hit, police said, adding that the bomb had been planted inside the building near the town of Nowshera.

President Asif Ali Zardari, several ministers and leaders of other political parties have strongly condemned the blast.

Witnesses described scenes of panic, the mosque’s windows and doors blown out by the strength of the explosion and blood sprayed on the building walls.

“I was distributing rice among the devotees when suddenly a huge blast occurred and I remember seeing people running and falling in panic,” Suleman Shah, 30, a jeweller, told AFP.

An AFP reporter at the site said: “There were blood marks in the mosque and cooked rice was scattered at some places. The blast had mangled the ceiling fans and all doors and windows of the mosque building were broken.”

Express 24/7 correspondent Omer Farooq, there were reports that threatening letters had been received in the area earlier.

Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants launch daily attacks across northwest Pakistan and the tribal belt that Washington has branded the most dangerous place on Earth.

More than 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since government forces launched an offensive against militants in a mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

The mosque in Friday’s attack is located in a shrine named after Muslim saint Akhund Panju Baba, in Akbarpura town, on the outskirts of Nowshera.

Confirming the fatalities, senior police officer Mohammad Qureish Khan put the number of wounded at 33.

“It was a planted bomb, we are investigating whether it was a remote control device,” he said. Senior minister Bashir Bilor told reporters after visiting the site that it was a timed device.

Bomb disposal official Hukam Khan said the bomb weighed about 2.5 kilos and was planted in a shoes rack.

The blast follows a suicide car bombing on Thursday in a densely populated area of Hangu, which lies 150 kilometres south of Peshawar and borders the troubled tribal belt along the Afghan border.

Ten people were killed in that bombing, which coincided with an ambush by militants in the Khyber tribal district killing six policemen, officials said.

The Taliban are engaged in a campaign of violence against security forces in Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led “war against terror”, claiming many attacks in revenge for US drone strikes in the tribal areas.