Suicide Blast: Kills 17, Injures 31 in NW Pakistan 
'Pakistan Times' NWFP Bureau

BANNU: At least 17 persons were killed including four policemen and 31 others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at Afsar Chowk in Bannu on Monday, police said.

The suicide attacker boarding a tri wheeler rickshaw blew himself up when he was intercepted by the police at Afsar Chowk, according to police and eye witnesses.

The police and local people rushed the injured to the District Headquarters Hospital Bannu where emergency was declared by Medical Superintendent DR. Gul Anar Jan.

Condition of some of the injured was stated to be critical out of whom four have been referred to the hospitals in Peshawar.

The dead were mostly passengers waiting to board the vehicles for their respective destinations at Afsar Chowk when the suicide bomber exploded himself up. Pieces of the dead bodies were scattered all around in the area. Blood of the victims was seen spreading over a large area.

Constables Adnan Khan, Adam Khan, Zarin and usman were mong the dead.

Names of the other dead so far identified are Kiran Batool, Gulsher, Riaz and Zar Nawaz.

The injured were identified as Sibghatullah, Aemi Khan, Abbasi Khan, Muhammad Qasim Khan, Syed Nawaz, Syed Ahmed Khan, Raza Ullah, Rauf ALi Shah, Shamshad Bibi, Abdul Nawaz, Aqab ALi, Muhammd Ali Khan, Amir Nawaz, Abdul Quyyum, Asad Ullah Khan, Yousaf Khan, Usman, Asif Khan, Muhammad Usman, Riaz Masih, Faridullah, Nasir Muhammad, Nasimullah, Inyatullah, Surat Khan, Nasir Khan, Saleh Jan and Gul Sahar Jana.

Police has cordoned off the area and tightened the security.

An earlier report had said that a suicide bomber set off a blast at ‘Afsar Chowk’ in Bannu that killed at least 13 people Monday.

According to initial reports, 19 persons were injured in Bannu sucide attack.

Police and district administration officials reached the spot of the blast to help in the relief operation. The injured were being transferred to hospitals and emergency had been declared at the hospitals.

In the blast four policemen, six civilians and the suicide attacker were reported dead.

The NWFP Governor, Lt. Gen. Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai has strongly condemned the suicide bomb attack in Bannu on Monday and said that such subversive activities were meant to disturb the peaceful atmosphere, and create a state of anarchy in the country.

In his condolence message on Monday, the Governor said that elements involved in such heinous crimes were neither serving the cause of Islam nor were intended in well being of the nation. Rather, he added, are the enemies of humanity and morality and they must have to be condemned by every patriotic citizen.

The Governor expressed the confidence that the law enforcing agencies would succeed in apprehending the culprits involved in the subversive activities and bring them to justice while expressing his heartfelt sympathies with the affected families, the Governor prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls and the early recovery of the injured.●