Two bombs exploded yesterday in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, inflicting some casualties, police and a witness said.
The blasts came a day after a suicide gun and bomb attack in the city of Lahore killed 24 people and wounded nearly 300. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the Lahore bomb, saying it was out of revenge for an army offensive in the Swat region.
“They were two bomb blasts. There are casualties but I don’t know the numbers. A building has caught fire,” senior police officer Mohammad Anis said.
PHOTO: AFP
The bombs went off in a crowded market area of Peshawar’s old city.
Officials later said at least five people were killed and 30 people were injured in the blasts.
“I can see about 15 wounded people lying on the ground. People are running out of their shops,” city resident Tahir Ali Shah said by telephone.
Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has surged since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets.
The violence and a perception the government was being distracted by political squabbling and failing to act to stop the Taliban had alarmed the US and other Western allies.
But the army moved against the Taliban in their Swat valley stronghold late last month after the militants had seized a district only 100km from the capital and a peace pact collapsed.
A militant commander loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud said earlier yesterday the Lahore attack was to avenge the offensive in Swat.
“We have achieved our target. We were looking for this target for a long time. It was a reaction to the Swat operation,” the commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The government also said the attack in a high-security area in Lahore where a police headquarters, emergency services building and a military intelligence office are located, was revenge for the Swat offensive.
Pakistan is vital for US plans to defeat al-Qaeda and cut support for the Afghan Taliban and the US has been heartened by the Swat offensive and by public support for it.
“The response by the military so far has the support of the Pakistani people,” White House National Security Adviser General James Jones said in Washington on Wednesday.
“The government’s popularity has shot up a little bit in the polls and that is going to have an effect in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese