ISLAMABAD:At least 13 people were killed and more than 50 wounded after a suicide bomber attacked a court in the Pakistani city of Mardan on Friday, police said, the latest assault targeting Pakistan's legal community
The Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat-ur-Ahrar on Friday claimed responsibility for a suicide attack at Mardan’s district courts in which at least 13 people were killed and 52 others injured.
Six lawyers and two policemen were among the dead. The attack is the second in the space of hours in the region. “First there was a small blast followed by a big blast,”chief rescue officer in Mardan Haris Habib said, adding that, “So far we recovered 12 bodies of the lawyers, police personnel and civilians. Besides this, we rescued 52 injured, including lawyers, police personnel and civilians from the
The attacker lobbed a hand grenade at the entrance of the court before exploding himself at the main gate of Mardan district courts, DPO Mardan told The Express Tribune.
Following the blast, security forces arrived at the spot and cordoned off the area. An investigation is underway and the injured have been shifted to Lady Reading Hospital and other hospitals in the locality.
According to a Rescue 112 official the number of injured is expected to rise. A state of emergency has been declared at local hospitals and security has been tightened in all adjoining areas.
Meanwhile, police officials confirmed that the suicide bomber had between seven and eight kilogrammes of explosives on his body.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has strongly condemned the blasts and has expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.
Four militants, guard killed in Peshawar Christian colony attack
At least four suicide bombers attacked a Christian neighbourhood in northwestern Pakistan early on Friday, killing at least one security guard, the military said.
Authorities “promptly responded” and all four attackers were dead, army spokesman Lt. General Asim Bajwa said in a message on social network Twitter.
In a separate statement, the military’s information wing said one security guard of the Christian residential area was killed at the start of the attack, at 5:30am.
The area is near Warsak Dam, in the Khyber tribal region 20 km (12 miles) northwest of the city of Peshawar, an official at the scene told Reuters.
Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat-ur-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the attack.
Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said there were “several deaths” in the attack on the neighbourhood near Warsak Dam.
The attackers, wearing suicide vests and carrying firearms, exchanged fire with security forces and were killed, the statement said.
Two solders, a policeman and two civilian security guards were wounded, it added.
The official said the attackers might have been attempting to enter an adjacent security installation, by exploiting weaker security arrangements in the residential area.
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