A car bomb tore through a busy market in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least 92 people as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the country and pledged support for its campaign against Islamist militants.
More than 200 people were wounded in the blast in the main northwestern city of Peshawar, the deadliest in a surge of attacks this month.
The government blamed militants seeking to avenge an army offensive launched this month against al-Qaeda and Taliban in their stronghold close to the Afghan border.
PHOTO: EPA
The bomb destroyed much of a market selling bangles, dresses and toys that was popular with women and children.
It collapsed buildings, including a mosque, and set shops on fire in an old part of the city crisscrossed with narrow alleys and clogged with stalls. Wounded people sat amid burning debris and body parts as a huge plume of gray smoke rose above the city.
“It was a car bomb. Some people are still trapped in a building. We are trying to rescue them,” bomb disposal official Shafqat Malik told reporters.
Crying for help, men grabbed at the wreckage, trying to pull out survivors trapped beneath. One two-story building collapsed as firefighters doused it with water, triggering more panic.
“There was a deafening sound and I was like a blind man for a few minutes,” said Mohammad Usman, who was wounded in the shoulder.
“I heard women and children crying and started to help others. There was the smell of human flesh in the air,” he said.
“We have 92 dead bodies and we have registered 217 injured people. Nineteen of the dead are women and 11 are children. All the dead are civilians,” Dr Zafar Iqbal said at Peshawar’s main Lady Reading Hospital.
A hospital official outside the casualty wing made a public announcement, appealing for people to donate blood as doctors spoke of harrowing scenes.
“There are body parts. There are people. There are burnt people. There are dead bodies. There are wounded,” said Muslim Khan, another physician.
Clinton was in Islamabad, a three-hour drive away when the blast took place.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the violence would not break his government’s will to fight back.
“The resolve and determination will not be shaken,” Qureshi said. “People are carrying out such heinous crimes — they want to shake our resolve. I want to address them: We will not buckle. We will fight you. We will fight you because we want peace and stability in Pakistan.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but that is not unusual, especially when the victims are Pakistani civilians.
Three bombs have exploded in Peshawar this month, including another one that killed more than 50 people, part of a barrage of at least 10 major attacks across the country that have killed some 250 people. Most have targeted security forces, but some bombs have gone off in public places, apparently to undercut support for the army’s assault on the border.
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