Deadliest Taliban attack in 2 years kills 91 - Pakistan - World - The Times of India
Deadliest Taliban attack in 2 years kills 91
Omer Farooq Khan, TNN 29 October 2009, 12:51am IST
ISLAMABAD: Aiming to prove a point, Taliban terrorists triggered Pakistan's deadliest car bomb explosion in two years in a Peshawar marketplace
packed with women and kids, killing at least 91 people, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew into Islamabad on a three-day official visit. More than 200 people were also injured in the attack.
The blast occurred in the historic Meena Bazaar, a market inside Peshawar's walled city mainly frequented by burqa-clad women shopping for clothes, cosmetics and knick-knacks. The market is popular among poor and middle-class women.
The attack was the deadliest one since October 2007, when 140 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in a procession to welcome Benazir Bhutto back to Pakistan. Benazir was killed in an attack weeks later.
``It was a car bomb blast. The car was parked outside a market frequented mostly by women,'' commissioner of Peshawar Azam Khan said, adding most of the dead were women and small children. Television footage showed rescuers, mostly civilians, busy in recovering dead bodies and rescuing injured people from the debris of gutted shops and a three-storey building which collapsed into a narrow street. Smoke billowed out of the narrow lanes as firefighters struggled to douse the flames. A nearby old mosque was also destroyed in the attack.
``We have received 86 dead bodies, 213 people were injured. We are facing a shortage of blood,'' Hamid Afridi, head of Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital told reporters. Hospital officials appealed the people to donate blood.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but blame automatically fell on the Taliban who are locked in a pitched battle with the Pakistan army in Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud's stronghold in South Waziristan.
Peshawar has been regularly hit by Taliban attacks. This is the first on the city since the military surge in South Waziristan began more than a week ago. The northwest frontier city has, for hundreds of years, been the main arms bazaar for militias and warlords who mainly call the shots in the rugged area straddling the Khyber Pass. The city, which had been the hub of the Great Game played out between the British and Russian empires for influence in Asia, is today not only awash with deadly weapons but is believed to be the place where most of the explosives used in suicide attacks and car bombs change hands.
Wednesday's bomb went off as Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad on her first official three-day visit to discuss US concerns about the increasing numbers of militant attacks and the security of the country's nuclear weapons.
``The United States will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Pakistan in its fight against brutal extremist groups who kill innocent people and terrorize communities,'' Hillary Clinton told a news conference.
``This is a critical moment and the United States seeks to turn the page to a new partnership, with not only the government but the people of a democratic Pakistan,'' Clinton said. ``We also recognize that it's imperative that we broaden our engagement with Pakistan.''
It is precisely this kind of US endorsement that has enabled the Taliban to turn their battle against Pakistan into a global jihad against the US using Pakistani cities and towns as the theatre for the war against forces, the Taliban sees as enemies of Islam.
During the last three weeks more than 250 people have been killed in a series of bomb blasts, suicide attacks, targeted killings and gun battles in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Lahore. Pakistan is currently on high alert for militant attacks in response to the army's offensive against the Taliban in the South Waziristan area. The army says another 200 people, mostly militants, have been killed in heavy fighting in the mountains of South Waziristan.
The army operation was launched on October 17 and the military claims to be making steady progress as troops target the hideouts and bases of Taliban and Al-Qaida in the region. Political observers believe that Waziristan operation has become a do-or-die situation for the army and they link the survival of the country with a victory in Waziristan.
