A bomb blast in Pakistan killed eight people yesterday, including four foreign aid workers and children at the opening of a school which been rebuilt after an Islamist attack.
Journalists were among up to 55 people wounded when the bomb exploded as Pakistani paramilitary forces escorted a group of foreign and local visitors to the inauguration ceremony for the newly built school in the volatile northwest.
“Eight people were killed in this blast — four foreigners, one security guard and three schoolgirls,” district police chief Mumtaz Zarin said. “The school building was also badly damaged and three vehicles destroyed.”
PHOTO: AFP
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and ordered an investigation into the roadside bombing in Koto village, about 10km from Taimargara, the main town in Lower Dir district.
“The four foreigners were working for an NGO [non-governmental organization]. They are from the international community,” a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps said.
Chief doctor Mohammad Wakeel at the local Taimargara Hospital said four schoolgirls were killed and dozens wounded.
“We have four dead bodies. They are schoolgirls aged 10 to 15. We have received 65 injured, most of them are girls,” he said.
Three journalists were also wounded, he said.
The nationalities of the dead foreigners were being investigated, police and foreign embassy officials said.
Meanwhile, late on Tuesday, up to 10 unmanned US drone aircraft launched about 18 missiles on hideouts and training camps in five isolated settlements of the Dattakhel area in tribal North Waziristan, killing 31 people, mostly militants.
North Waziristan borders Afghanistan and is infested with Taliban insurgents, al-Qaeda operatives and fighters with the Haqqani militant network.
“Thirty-one people, mostly militants, were killed,” a senior security official said.
“Eight to 10 US drones were involved ... there were no such big strikes in the past, this was the heaviest,” another Pakistani security official said.
He said the village of Daigan bore the brunt of the bombing raid, where militants dug trenches and mounted anti-aircraft guns on vehicles to try to bring down the US drones that fly almost daily over the area.
“Some of the bodies are badly mutilated and beyond recognition,” resident Syed Mohammad said.
Drone attacks have soared since US President Barack Obama put Pakistan at the heart of his administration’s fight against al-Qaeda, fanning anti-US sentiment in the country.
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