Mayor, 12 others killed in Peshawar suicide blast

Peshawar, Nov 8 : At least 13 people, including a city mayor, were killed and 36 others were wounded near this northwestern frontier town when a suicide bomber blew up a car outside the official's home Sunday, less than a fortnight after a massive bomb blast killed over 110 people here.

The explosion occurred when Abdul Malik, the mayor of nearby Adizai town, was standing with a group of visitors outside his house near the local livestock market. At least seven vehicles were destroyed in the blast. Many buildings also were damaged, Online news agency reported.

Malik and the other injured were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital here, where the mayor succumbed to his injuries. According to hospital sources, 36 injured people were brought to the facility, four of them in critical condition.

Peshawar district coordination officer Sahibzada Anis confirmed that Malik, who had raised a militia against Taliban militants in Darra Adamkhel, had lost his life in the blast.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Karim Khan, the blast was a suicide attack. The bomb disposal squad also confirmed this.

The attack took place outside the Adizai cattle market, located 25 km south-west of Peshawar, the capital of restive North West Frontier Province that borders Afghanistan.

Khan Zamir, an eyewitness, said that he was buying goats for the upcoming Eid celebration when an explosion ripped through the market.

"The place turned into hell where the dead and injured were lying everywhere," Geo News quoted Zamir as saying. Two of his relatives were badly injured in the explosion.

The powerful blast spread panic in the area. The market was crowded with shoppers and goats being sold.

"Malik had survived several attacks on his life in the recent past, since he turned against the militants," Sahibzada Anis was quoted as saying.

"But today (Sunday) the militants have finally killed him."

Terrorists based in Khyber Agency and Darra Adamkhel are suspected to have carried out the attack.

This city faced this year's worst terror attack Oct 28 when over 110 people were killed in a massive bombing at a crowded market.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani have strongly condemned the blast. Gilani said that those involved in such attacks were enemies of the state and would be brought to justice.

Pakistan has witnessed a series of terror strikes as the army battled the Taliban in mountainous South Waziristan. The Taliban have vowed to retaliate over the US drone attacks, one of which killed their leader Baitullah Mehsud in early August.

The latest wave of militant violence started with a suicide bombing at the offices of the UN World Food Programme in Islamabad Oct 5. Five employees of the agency were killed.

The heavily fortified General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army had come under attack Oct 10 when 10 terrorists in military uniform laid siege to it. At least 19 people, including nine raiders, died in the 22-hour standoff. One militant was arrested.

On Oct 15, gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed two police academies and the offices of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore. A car bomber struck at a police station in the northwestern town of Kohat. At least 38 people, including 11 insurgents were killed in a single day.

A day later, 25 people were killed and 27 injured in a series of blasts across Pakistan. Eighteen people died in a land mine explosion in Mohmand Agency while seven were killed when a suicide bomber struck at an air force base in Attock district. Eight people were injured in the Peshawar bombing.

--IANS