New blasts rock Pakistan as Taliban battles continue

Two explosions at a busy Pakistan market and a police checkpoint killed at least 11 people and wounded scores of others today.

The latest violence in Peshawar, the largest city near the lawless tribal region near the Afghan border, will further test the government’s resolve to take on militants whose grip on parts of the country has strengthened this year.

Meanwhile today the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on security forces yesterday in the eastern city of Lahore.

Bombs mounted on motorbikes tore off walls and shattered windows in a row of small shops in Peshawar’s Qissa Khawani bazaar.

Police said at least six people were killed. A doctor at a nearby hospital said 80 people wounded in the blast had been taken in, many with critical injuries.

Commando units rushed to the scene and began a gun battle with suspected militants in a nearby building. Two gunmen were shot dead and at least one other was arrested.

As the gunfight was under way, a suspected suicide bomber blew up a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, killing four officers.

The explosions came a day after a suicide attack on police and intelligence agency offices in Lahore that killed about 30 people and wounded more than 300 others.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, said it was in response to the military’s offensive against militants in the north-eastern Swat Valley.

He warned of further attacks in the major cities of Multan, Rawalpindi, Lahore and the capital, Islamabad, and urged civilians to flee.

At least 250 were wounded on top of the death toll when gunmen fired and threw grenades at offices of the police and top intelligence agency, then detonated an explosive-laden van in a busy street in Pakistan’s second-largest city.

The attack on Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province, was far from the troubled Afghan border region where the Taliban have established strongholds in the Swat Valley.

The military launched a major offensive in Swat after the Taliban seized control of a neighbouring district an a bid to extend their influence.

Western allies see the offensive as a test of the Pakistani government’s resolve to take on the spread of militancy.

Yesterday’s attack was the third since March in Lahore, following ones on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team and a police academy.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said militants were striking out because they were losing the fight with government forces battling to uproot extremists.

Meanwhile the government took out newspaper adverts today listing 21 Taliban leaders – 18 of them with pictures – and offering rewards for each.