Four killed in central Pakistan blast

At least four people were killed today when a bomb exploded near an intelligence office in the central Pakistani city of Multan, police said.

Police official Karamat Malik said seven other people were injured.

The blast severely damaged several buildings, including one belonging to the country’s main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence.

Militants have repeatedly struck in Pakistan over the past two months as Islamist extremists retaliate against an anti-Taliban army offensive in the country’s north-west near the Afghan border.

This is the first time that Multan has been hit during a surge of violence which began in October and has already killed more than 400 people.

TV footage from Multan showed several severely damaged buildings in the neighbourhood, some with their facades ripped off. Ambulances wailed as security forces flooded the zone, where a Federal Investigation Agency office was also located.

Rizwan Naseer, the official in charge of the area’s government-run emergency service, told a Pakistani news channel that the attack killed 12 people and wounded 30 people. It was not immediately clear how many were intelligence agents.

The attack came as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Washington was ready to work more closely with Pakistan as soon as Islamabad expressed willingness.

“The more they get attacked internally... the more open they may be” to help from the United States, Mr Gates said during a trip to Afghanistan. “But we are prepared to expand that relationship at any pace they are prepared to accept.”

Early today, suspected US missiles struck a car carrying three people in the Taliban-riddled North Waziristan tribal region, two intelligence officials said.

The region neighbours South Waziristan, the focus of the latest Pakistani army offensive, and is believed to be where many of the Taliban have fled to avoid the military onslaught. The identities of the three were not immediately clear.

Most of the militant attacks in recent weeks have been directed at security forces, although several have targeted crowded public spaces such as markets, apparently to create public anger and increase pressure on the government to call a halt to the South Waziristan offensive.

The Taliban generally claim responsibility for attacks on security officers, but not those that kill civilians, though they – or affiliated extremist groups - are suspected in all the strikes.

Late yesterday, twin blasts and a resulting fire ripped through the Moon Market, a centre in the eastern city of Lahore which is popular with women and sells clothing, shoes and cosmetics.

Lahore police chief Pervaiz Lathore said today that the death toll in the blasts had reached 49, with more than 100 people wounded.

Authorities initially said both bombs at the market were believed to be remote-controlled, but they later said a suicide bomber was suspected to have detonated at least one of them.

Earlier yesterday, a suicide bomber killed 10 people outside a courthouse in the north-western city of Peshawar.

Lahore is Pakistan’s second-largest city. It has been hit several times by militants over the past year, including an attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team and several strikes against security installations.

By attacking Lahore and Multan, militants are bringing their war to the heart of Pakistan. Both are cities in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, and one far from the north-west regions where al Qaida and the Taliban have more easily proliferated.

Peshawar has been a more frequent target. The north-western city lies on the main road into the lawless tribal belt. Of all the attacks since the start of October, the deadliest occurred in Peshawar, where at least 112 people were killed in a bombing at another market.

The rise in militant attacks comes amid growing political turbulence, especially regarding the future of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Today, the Supreme Court continued examining the legality of an amnesty protecting him and 8,000 other officials from prosecution. The amnesty expired last month, and judges must rule on whether to reopen corruption cases against them.

Although Mr Zardari has immunity from prosecution as president, some experts say the court could now take up cases challenging his eligibility to run for office.