PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber struck a neighborhood home to government buildings and a church in Pakistan’s main northwest city Thursday, killing five people.
The attack was the second in three days in Peshawar, and the latest in a wave of violence that has killed more than 500 people in Pakistan since October. Insurgents are suspected of avenging a U.S.-supported Pakistani army offensive against the Taliban in a northwest tribal region along the Afghan border.
The bomber walked up to a checkpoint along the road and detonated his explosives when a police officer asked him to stop, city police chief Liaquat Ali said. Ali paid glowing tributes to the slain policeman, saying if he had not acted the attacker might have struck a more crowded area, killing more people.
TV footage from the scene showed shattered glass and debris covering a wide area as security officials flooded the zone. More than a dozen were wounded in the attack.
Recent militant attacks have struck a range of targets, from markets popular with women to security checkpoints. Thursday’s blast rocked a busy sector of Peshawar where buildings housing the state-run airline, a public school and a government insurance company were. A Catholic church was nearby, likely preparing for Christmas Eve services, but the bomber had been walking away from it.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the region’s information minister, also noted army installationswere close but he “cannot say for sure what the target was.”
Also Thursday, a suicide bomber targeting a procession of Shiites detonated his explosives at the gate of a shrine on the outskirts of Islamabad, said Police Chief Kalim Imam. Men were making their way to the shrine, with women already inside, as the bomber approached. He set off his vest when police challenged him, Imam said. Police official Sajjad Hussein said a 4-year-old girl was killed. One policeman was also wounded.
On Tuesday, a suicide bomber set off explosives at the Peshawar Press Club, an attack on the media in what has long been an unsafe environment for journalists to operate.
The government condemned the bombings but vowed it would not be deterred in its battle to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban from its soil. The army offensive in South Waziristan tribal region has left hundreds of militants dead, but many are believed to have simply fled to other parts of the country’s lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
Even though the Pakistani Taliban may be under siege, it is possible they are relying on other allied militant groups to help carry out the strikes across the country. Strong networks are believed to exist among the varying extremist factions in Pakistan, many of whom want to see the Pakistani state toppled because ofits relations with the United States.
Information for this article was contributed by Munir Ahmad, Zarar Khan and Babar Dogar of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 12/25/2009