Pakistan blasts targeting army vehicles kill 43

A PAIR of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other yesterday, killing at least 43 people in this eastern city and wounding about 100, police said.

It was the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week, indicating Islamist militants are stepping upviolence after a period of relative calm.

About 10 of those killed were soldiers.

The bombers, who were on foot, struck RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighbourhood where several security agencies have facilities. Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose into the sky and bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances. Video being shot with a mobile phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange flame suddenly erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast a short clip of the footage shot by Tabraiz Bukhari.

“Oh my God, oh my God. Who are these beasts? Oh my God,” Bukhari can be heard shouting after the blast in a mixture of English and Urdu.

Senior police official Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq said 43 people were killed and about 100 were injured. Some of the wounded were missing limbs, lying in pools of blood after the explosions, eyewitness Afzal Awan said.

“I saw smoke rising everywhere,” Awan told reporters. “A lot of people were crying.”

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida.

The militants are believed to have been behind scores of attacks in US-allied Pakistan over the last several years, including a series of strikes that began in October and lasted around three months, killing some 600 people.