Two suicide bombings targeting Chinese engineers and a police training center yesterday killed 37 people in Pakistan, which has seen a surge in violent attacks since the bloody end to a mosque siege in Islamabad.
A suicide bomber driving a car detonated high-intensity explosives packed in the vehicle as a convoy of Chinese engineers traveled through the town of Hub in Pakistan's southern Balochistan Province.
"Twenty-nine people have so far been confirmed dead in the attack, while 28 more are injured," Balochistan government spokesman Raziq Bugti said.
The Chinese engineers, who were being escorted by a heavy contingent of police, remained unhurt in the blast that damaged 10 other vehicles.
The expatriates were moving towards Pakistan's largest city of Karachi located some 35km southeast of Hub.
"Eight policemen are among the dead," Frontier Corps paramilitary forces commander Major General Saleem Nawaz said.
Following the attack, the policemen opened indiscriminate fire and reportedly killed and injured some passers-by, the private Geo news channel said.
Meanwhile, eight people, including a policeman, were killed and 29 others injured in an early morning explosion at the entrance of a police training facility in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
A suicide car bomber carried out the attack at 7:20am on the police academy in the town of Hangu, 90km southwest of NWFP capital Peshawar.
One child was among the five civilians killed in the bombing, a local police official, Gul Zaman, said. The body of the suicide bomber was also recovered from the blast site.
The attacker set off the explosives when guards stopped him as he tried to drive his vehicle into the academy where the recruits had just finished their morning drill.
The two fresh attacks came a day after 34 people, including 17 soldiers, were killed in skirmishes between pro-Taliban militants and the security forces in the country's semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Violence has increased in Pakistan in the aftermath of the military's storming operation against the Red Mosque in Islamabad during which at least 75 Islamic militants were killed on July 10.
In response to the calls of extremists, revenge attacks have been carried out on military convoys and police facilities that have so far killed more than 100 security personnel.
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