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CAIRO– Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatens in a new audio tape to kill French citizens to avenge their country’s support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and a new law that will ban face-covering Muslim veils.

In the tape obtained by satellite television station Al-Jazeera and then posted on its website on Wednesday, bin Laden said France was aiding the Americans in the killing of Muslim women and children in an apparent reference to the war in Afghanistan. He said the kidnapping of five French citizens in the African nation of Niger last month was a reaction to what he called France’s oppression of Muslims.

“How can it be right that you participate in the occupation of our lands, support the Americans in the killing of our women and children and yet want to live in peace and security?” said bin Laden, addressing the French.

“It is a simple and clear equation: As you kill, you will be killed. As you capture, you will be captured. And as you threaten our security, your security will be threatened. The way to safeguard your security is to cease your oppression and its impact on our nation, most importantly your withdrawal from the ill-fated Bush war in Afghanistan.”

The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified but the voice resembled that of the terror group leader on previous tapes determined to be genuine. France’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tapes by bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri, have recently been posted on Al-Jazeera website rather than on sites run by militant Muslims as has been done for years. The shift appears to reflect the unexplained technical difficulties or closures experienced by the militant sites in recent months.

France has about 4,000 troops deployed in and near Afghanistan.

“You need to think of what happened to America as a result of that unjust war,” bin Laden said, again addressing the French and referring to the war in Afghanistan. “It’s on the verge of bankruptcy … and tomorrow it will retreat to beyond the Atlantic.”

France passed a law this month that will ban the wearing of face-covering burqa-style Muslim veils in public starting in April. Many Muslims have expressed fears the law would stigmatize them.

“If you deemed it your right to ban (Muslim) women from wearing the hijab, then should not it be our right to expel your invading men by striking their necks?” bin Laden said.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an offshoot of bin Laden’s group, has claimed responsibility for the abductions of five French citizens in Niger and is believed to have taken them to neighboring Mali. The French hostages, as well as a Togolese and a Madagascar national were kidnapped on Sept. 16 while they were sleeping in their villas in the uranium mining town of Arlit.

“The kidnapping of your experts in the Niger is a reaction to your oppression of Muslims,” said bin Laden.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb grew out of an Islamist insurgency movement in Algeria, merging with Al Qaeda in 2006 and spreading through the Sahara and the arid Sahel region. It has increasingly been targeting French interests.

In July, the group said it executed a 78-year-old French aid worker it had taken hostage three months before. It said the killing was retaliation for the deaths of six Al Qaeda members in a French-backed military operation against the group.

Also in July, the French military said it provided technical and logistical assistance to help Mauritanian forces thwart an attack by suspected Al Qaeda members in northwest Africa. It said the operation left six extremists dead.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy later described that operation as a “turning point” and said France would provide training, equipment and intelligence to local troops working to fight militants in the Sahel.

A series of warnings has put France and other European countries on high alert in recent weeks, prompting the U.S. State Department to advise American citizens living or traveling in Europe to take more precautions. Speculation on the source of a potential terror threat in France has focused on Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

By foxnews.com

Oct. 7: This image, made from a video broadcast, shows Usama bin Laden at an undisclosed location. The Al Qaeda leader threatened to kill French citizens in a new audio tape posted Oct. 27 to avenge their country's support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

MULTAN, Pakistan — A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded at the gate of a famous Sufi shrine in central Pakistan during morning prayers Monday, killing at least five people, officials said.

The blast at the Farid Shakar Ganj shrine in Punjab province was the latest in a string of attacks targeting Sufi shrines in Pakistan. Islamist militants often target Sufis, whose mystical practices clash with their hardline interpretation of Islam.

The dead from Monday’s blast included at least one woman, said Maher Aslam Hayat, a senior government official in the Pak Pattan district where the shrine is located. At least 13 others were wounded in the explosion, he said.

The bombing significantly damaged a row of shops outside the shrine, said Hayat. But the shrine itself, which is dedicated to a 12th century Sufi saint, was largely undamaged, he said.

Local TV footage showed the twisted and charred body of the motorcycle on which the bomb was planted. It also showed large piles of broken wood and chunks of concrete from the shops damaged by the blast.

After the attack, a top Sufi scholar, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the Sufi population. Pakistan is 95 percent Muslim, and the majority practice Sufi-influenced Islam.

“Our rulers are too busy serving foreign masters and have not prioritized protecting the people and sacred places from terrorists,” said Rehman.

Earlier this month, two suspected suicide bombers attacked a beloved Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, killing at least eight people and wounding 65 others.

A suicide attack in July killed 47 people at the nation’s most revered Sufi shrine, Data Darbar in the eastern city of Lahore. That attack infuriated many Pakistanis, who saw it as an unjustified assault on peaceful civilians.

The government has waged a sustained military campaign against militants based in its semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border who have declared war against the Pakistani state. But militant violence remains a problem.

A roadside bomb struck a passenger van in the Orakzai tribal region on Monday, killing three people and wounding two others, said Aurangzeb Khan, a local government administrator. The blast tore apart the vehicle, which was passing near the village of Tanda.

The Pakistani military declared victory in Orakzai in June after pounding Taliban militants in the area for months with airstrikes and artillery. But militant attacks and military operations in the area have continued.

Army helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant hideouts in Orakzai on Sunday, killing 15 alleged insurgents, said Jehanzeb Khan, another local government official.

By foxnews.com

Oct. 25, 2010: In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, people gather at the blast site in Pak Pattan, a city in Pakistan's Punjab province, early Monday morning

At least 32 killed in multiple attacks in Karachi where recent unrest is raising fears of instability.

At least 32 people have been killed in shootouts in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi, police have said.

In the deadliest attack on Tuesday, at least 13 people were shot dead when six armed men on motorbikes opened fire in the Shershah Kabari market.

“The attackers came on motorcycles and started indiscriminate firing,” Raja Riyasat, a police official, told the AFP news agency.

Several others were injured and Arif Razzaq, a second police official, said the death toll may rise as some of the wounded were in critical condition.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said the scene of the attack was a scrap market normally frequented by labourers from other parts of the country.

“This would have been a busy area because in Pakistan, scrap dealers make a lot of money,” he said. “It’s a country where everyone cannot afford to buy brand new automobile parts.”

He said sporadic gunfights were ongoing in different parts of the city and had resulted 19 more deaths.

Election violence

About 60 people have been killed in Karachi since Saturday when violence erupted ahead of a by-election to replace a provincial legislator murdered in August.

It was not clear whether Tuesday’s attacks were related to that violence.

Our correspondent said the recent unrest stemmed from a political power struggle.

“For the last few months, various political parties have been battling for control of Karachi.

“The Awami National Party and MQM [Muttahida Qaumi Movement] are fighting what appears to be a turf war,” he said. The Awami National Party is MQM’s main rival for political posts and control of the city.

“The people of Karachi have been held hostage by these political groups.”

The MQM, which is the dominant political force in Karachi, has stepped up pressure on the government to stem the last days’ violence, saying its workers were among those killed.

Some sources said the MQM threatened over the weekend to pull out of the federal coalition government with the Pakistan People’s Party to protest the violence.

The move, which party sources say was put “on hold” on assurances of strong action to contain the violence, could lead to the government losing its National Assembly majority, or even its downfall if the MQM sides with the opposition.

Karachi has long been plagued by political and ethnic violence and there is concern that the city is being used as a haven for the Taliban. Some violence in the city is also linked to criminal gangs.

At the same time, Karachi is the commercial capital of Pakistan. It generates 68 per cent of the government’s revenue and 25 per cent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product.

By aljazeera.net

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Around 50 people have been killed in Karachi since Saturday when violence erupted ahead of a by-election [AFP

Suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft launched two missiles at a vehicle in the Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border on Friday, killing three people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The attack was in the village of Machi Khel, near Mir Ali in North Waziristan, two officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk with the press.

The officials said the three killed have not yet been identified, but the village is known to house a mix of militants from the Afghan Taliban and local Pakistani insurgent groups.

The U.S. has sharply escalated its use of unmanned drone missile strikes targeting militants in Pakistan’s border region in the last two months.

The U.S. rarely acknowledges the covert missile programme, but officials have said privately the attacks have killed several senior Taliban and al-Qaeda commanders. Pakistan officially opposes the program but is believed to secretly support it.

The U.S. carried out 21 such strikes in September, nearly double the previous monthly record, and has already launched 16 this month including those on Friday, according to an Associated Press count.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, gunmen ambushed a truck early Friday that was returning home after delivering NATO supplies in Afghanistan, killing two people.

Local official Iqbal Khan said the truck was attacked near Jamrud in the Khyber tribal region. The driver and his assistant were killed, and the unidentified gunmen then torched the truck.

The attack was the most recent in a rash of assaults on the Pakistan supply line used to carry non-lethal goods including fuel, military vehicles, spare parts and clothing to foreign troops in landlocked Afghanistan.

Nearly 150 trucks were destroyed as they sat idle during the 11 days Pakistan closed a key border crossing in protest of a NATO helicopter strike that killed two Pakistani border guards. Pakistan reopened the route Sunday.

The U.S. and NATO at one point sent about 80 per cent of their non-lethal supplies through Pakistan into Afghanistan, but have been steadily reducing that amount. Now about 40 per cent of supplies now come through Pakistan, 40 per cent through the Central Asian routes, and 20 per cent by air.

By thehindu.com

Pakistani police officers escort arrested alleged militants to a jail in Bahawalpur, Pakistan on Thursday. Suspected U.S. unmanned air strikes killed three people, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Friday.

The Pakistan-Afghan crossing was closed 11 days ago after a NATO incursion that killed two Pakistani soldiers. Militants took advantage of the blockade to attack more than 150 parked trucks, killing at least 6 people.

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistan on Sunday reopened a key Afghan border crossing used by trucks and tankers ferrying fuel and supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan, ending an 11-day blockade imposed after a NATO helicopter cross-border incursion that killed two Pakistani troops.

The first of hundreds of trucks and tankers stranded at the Torkham checkpoint at the Khyber Pass since Sept. 30 began moving across the border early afternoon Sunday. The border reopening should ease the massive bottleneck created by the blockade, which was followed by a series of militant attacks on parked NATO oil tankers and trucks across Pakistan.

More than 150 NATO trucks were set ablaze or damaged in those attacks. At least six people were killed in the attacks.

Although U.S. officials hailed the border reopening as a welcome development, relations between Islamabad and Washington remained palpably tense. The killing of the two Pakistani border soldiers by NATO helicopters on Sept. 30 was seen in Pakistan as an intolerable violation of the country’s sovereignty and came at a time when the U.S. had dramatically stepped up its drone-missile campaign against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants hiding out in Pakistan’s largely lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border.

In September, the U.S. carried out 22 drone-missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas, most of them directed at the Afghan Taliban wing known as the Haqqani network in the North Waziristan region. Pakistan has balked at moving against Haqqani network fighters, a reluctance that has exasperated officials in Washington because Haqqani fighters use North Waziristan as a base for launching attacks on U.S., NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials decided on Saturday that they would reopen the Torkham crossing. That decision came four days after the U.S. government and NATO formally apologized for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers, saying the helicopter crews mistook the men for insurgents they had been pursuing across the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Pakistan plays a vital role in keeping supply lines open for U.S. and Western troops battling Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. About 40% of NATO’s non-lethal supplies bound for Afghanistan move by truck from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to either the northwestern border crossing at Torkham or the southern crossing at Chaman. The Chaman crossing, located in Balochistan province, was not shut down after the Sept. 30 NATO helicopter incursion.

In recent years, U.S and NATO forces have established northern routes through former Soviet republics in Central Asia as alternate supply lines, which has allowed NATO to reduce its reliance on Pakistan as a transit nation. At one point, 80% of NATO’s non-lethal supplies moved through Pakistan.

By latimes.com

A truck carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan enters into Afghanistan through Pakistan's Torkham border crossing point.

U.S. and NATO forces have killed more than 100 fighters from a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban during two weeks of stepped-up military operations along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The intensified border operations have contributed to tension between the United States and Pakistan that reached a critical point last week, when U.S. forces crossed into Pakistan and mistakenly killed three Pakistani frontier forces. Pakistan closed a key border crossing used to supply fuel to U.S. forces in Afghanistan in retaliation.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell expressed remorse for what he called a mistake by U.S. forces and said results of a joint NATO-Afghan investigation of the incident would be released Wednesday.

Morrell said U.S. and NATO forces targeted Haqqani network fighters using border areas as refuge in eastern Afghanistan. He said more than 100 were killed, and later gave a more precise figure.

The tally was an example of an increasing U.S. willingness to provide figures for enemy deaths in a counterinsurgency fight that U.S. commanders have long insisted can never be won by attrition.

“The threat is real, and though we’ve had success in killing 110 of them, there clearly are more of them out there who remain a threat to our forces,” Morrell said, adding that the Islamist fighters also battle Afghan and Pakistani forces.

The Haqqani network is a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida.

The group was started by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a commander once supported by Pakistan and the U.S. during the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Haqqani has since turned against the U.S., and American military officials have said his organization - now effectively led by his son, Sirajuddin - presents one of the greatest threats to foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Morrell said he has not heard anything to suggest the U.S. will change the way its aircraft operate along the border, although he would not discuss specific rules of engagement.

“We will retain the right to defend our forces, to defend ourselves,” he said during a Pentagon press conference. “And our forces who operate on the border with Pakistan are in a very dangerous and difficult situation.”

The helicopter strike that killed the three Frontier Corps forces was the third such incursion into Pakistan in less than a week.

Pakistan is extremely sensitive to any U.S. military presence inside its borders, and conspiracy theories about U.S. motives abound. The incidents further opened Pakistan’s weak civilian government to charges at home that it is a U.S. puppet.

The stepped-up operations coincided with but are not directly tied to the three cross-border incursions, which U.S. officials acknowledge puts additional pressure on Islamabad to respond.

“There are occasional setbacks in our day-to-day relations, this being one of them, the most recent of them,” Morrell said.

Other U.S. officials stressed that the United States is not intentionally squeezing Pakistan to make the point that if it fails to vigorously target militants the United States will step in.

A small bomb damaged a truck in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday that was carrying oil to NATO troops in Afghanistan - the latest attack on stalled supply convoys since Pakistan shut the border crossing last week.

U.S. and Pakistani officials have said the Torkham crossing would probably reopen within a few days. U.S. military officials said the closure has not harmed delivery of fuel to U.S. forces, although alternate routes are less convenient and more expensive.

The increased military operations along the border and CIA drone strikes farther inland are a logical outgrowth of better intelligence and targeting information flowing from sources inside and outside Pakistan, officials said. At the same time they represent a calculated risk that the tense partnership between Washington and Islamabad can withstand the inevitable backlash.

“There are mistakes. There are incidents which create misunderstandings,” Morrell said.

“But that does not mean the relationship - this crucial relationship to us - is in any way derailed.”

Besides safe passage for NATO supplies, the U.S. needs Pakistan to help target the Taliban and al-Qaida militants who stage cross-border attacks on troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan meanwhile receives billions of dollars in military and civilian assistance that help keep its economy afloat.

By kansascity.com

A driver of Afghanistan-bound NATO truck sleeps as vehicles are parked at Pakistani border post Torkham in northwest of Pakistan on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. Pakistan blocked a vital supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in apparent retaliation for an alleged cross-border helicopter strike by the coalition that killed three Pakistani frontier troops.

The White House says President Barack Obama still considers Pakistan a strong ally in the fight against extremist forces.  Comments by Mr. Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, came Monday as the United States and Pakistan continued to discuss the closure of a key border crossing and amid concern about attacks on NATO supply convoys.

At a White House news briefing, Gibbs was asked about the attacks on NATO fuel tanker trucks, four of which occurred since Pakistan closed the northwestern Khyber Pass Torkhum border crossing last week.

The attacks followed what NATO says was a self-defense hot-pursuit action by helicopters.  NATO expressed regret over the deaths of three Pakistani soldiers; a joint investigation is continuing.

Gibbs said it is his understanding that concerns relating to the border closure were the subject of discussions at the State Department between U.S. and Pakistani diplomats, adding that those talks were close to producing some results.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack on 20 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan, calling it a response to U.S. drone strikes.  Pakistani officials say one such strike killed eight militants, including some that officials describe as German nationals.  The United States does not confirm drone strikes, which Pakistan says is a violation of its sovereignty.

Although he declined to comment on the latest suspected U.S. drone attack, Press Secretary Gibbs responded this way when asked whether the U.S. still believes that Pakistan and Afghanistan are strong allies in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

“We have strong and important partnerships with Afghanistan [and] in Pakistan - a strong ally in common pursuits to address extremism and the threat that it poses,” said Robert Gibbs.

As when asked previously about the U.S. view of Pakistani cooperation, Gibbs cited what he called the renewed effort that Pakistan has made in recent years to address the extremist threat - one that affects Pakistan and the United States.

Gibbs was also asked whether the Obama administration believes a majority of Americans support the sacrifices the United States is making in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“I think that the American people understand very much what is at stake and the important mission that we have over there,” he said. “Obviously, there are political viewpoints that vary across the spectrum.  The president, though, understands what we must do in addressing the threat to those countries and to us.”

At the State Department, spokesman P. J. Crowley told reporters that the United States is “quite satisfied” with the level of cooperation and the coordination it has with Pakistan.  He echoed Gibbs’s comments about Pakistan’s recognition of the threat that extremists pose to its stability.

On the question of the closure of the major border crossing, Crowley stressed that the United States and NATO have multiple supply routes into Afghanistan, and he said the flow of materiel continues.

By voanews.com

US and NATO fuel trucks burning in Shikarpur, southern Pakistan, 01 Oct 2010

Men believed to be militants set fire to 35 tankers in Pakistan that were carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Friday, officials said, a day after three soldiers were killed in a cross-border NATO airstrike.

Senior local officials blamed “extremists” for the attack on the tankers, which took place in the southern town of Shikarpur. About 12 people, their faces covered, opened fire with small arms into the air to scare away the drivers, and then they set the fires. Ten people were later arrested.

Chief Abdul Hameed Khoso of the Shikarpur police said the damage to the tankers varied, but he added, “There is no loss of human life.”

In another part of Pakistan, two unidentified men fired on a NATO tanker traveling through a town in Baluchistan Province toward Afghanistan. Two people burned to death after the vehicle caught fire, security officials said.

The attack comes during a tense week in relations between the United States and Pakistan. Angered by repeated incursions by NATO helicopters over the past week, Pakistan has blocked a supply route for coalition troops in Afghanistan. Analysts say border incursions and disruptions in NATO supplies underline growing tensions in a relationship that the United States relies on heavily to stabilize Afghanistan.

The latest cross-border attack took place in the northwest, when three Pakistani soldiers were killed and three were wounded as NATO forces chased militants in the Kurram tribal region.

It was the third such attack in a week, the Pakistan military said. NATO said the helicopters briefly crossed into Pakistani airspace after coming under fire from people there.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, speaking in Parliament, said Pakistan was a partner in the war against Islamist militancy but would allow no infringement of its sovereignty.

“I want to assure the entire nation from this house that we will consider other options if there is interference in the sovereignty of our country,” Mr. Gilani said without elaborating.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Belgium lodged a protest with NATO’s deputy general secretary over the incursions, the Pakistan Embassy said in a statement.

On Thursday, hours after the cross-border attack, Pakistani authorities halted tankers carrying supplies for the NATO forces passing through the Khyber tribal region on the Afghan border.

About three-quarters of cargo for NATO forces in Afghanistan moves through Pakistan, most via two border crossings: Chaman north of Quetta in Baluchistan, and Torkham at the Khyber Pass.

Delicate gear like ammunition, weapons and critical equipment is flown in.

By nytimes.com

Police inspected a row of smoldering NATO fuel trucks in southern Pakistan after an attack on Friday.

• Drone attacks intercept militants based in Pakistan

• Western intelligence agencies confirm plot fears

A plot to launch “commando-style” attacks on Britain, France, and Germany has been intercepted and foiled by drone attacks on militants based in Pakistan, security and intelligence sources said last night.

The plan for suicidal onslaughts similar to the 2008 atrocity in Mumbai – where 166 people were killed in a series of gun and grenade assaults – was disrupted after a combined operation involving US, UK, French and German intelligence agencies, officials said.

British security and intelligence sources, who have been concerned for some time about the possibility of a Mumbai-style attack in Europe, confirmed that they believed a plot was being hatched from Pakistan.

The increased rate of coordinated US drone raids along the border with Afghanistan is believed to be a response to intelligence gathered about the plot. Security sources insisted that attacks in Europe were not imminent.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, however, has been evacuated twice because of a bomb scare in the past two weeks, a precaution that may have been prompted by the intelligence.

No further evidence of such a plot was provided. Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, earlier this month spoke publicly about the continuing threat of terror attacks in the UK. In his speech, he suggested that around 50% of the plots identified had links to Pakistan – a decline on previous estimates that suggested the figure was nearer 75%.

The terror group behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks was the outlawed, Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

In the aftermath of the attack western intelligence agencies gained access to computers seized from the Islamist group which listed other potential targets outside the Indian subcontinent for commando-style terror strikes.

Nine of the gunmen were killed – but a lone survivor gave Indian investigators a full confession that the assault was planned in Pakistan by Lashkar, a militant group that originally began an armed campaign against the Indian army in Kashmir.

US military briefings suggested the latest missile attacks in Pakistan had been coordinated by the CIA and were an unusual example of using drones to pre-empt possible terror plots.

“There are some pretty notable threat streams,” one US military official told the Wall Street Journal, adding that the significance of the threats is still being assessed by counterterrorism experts.

The CIA is believed to have launched at least 20 drone strikes this month in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the region bordering Afghanistan That is the highest monthly total in the past six years, according tofigures from the New America Foundation think tank which monitors drone operations.

Four people were reported killed in the latest raid on Monday by US Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that are operated remotely out of air force bases in the US. A senior al-Qaida leader was among one of those killed in drone raids, Pakistani and US officials said yesterday.

There has also been speculation that some of the attacks may be targeted against the Islamist Haqqani network, a group that has not previously operated outside the region.

The group controls the area in north-western Pakistan where intelligence officials suspect Osama bin Laden may be hiding.

American officials declined to comment on specific plots in Europe or elsewhere but acknowledged that targeted drone strikes in Pakistan were meant to disrupt militant networks planning attacks.

“It shouldn’t surprise anyone that links between plots and those who are orchestrating them lead to decisive American action,” a US official told Reuters.

“The terrorists who are involved are, as everyone should expect, going to be targets. That’s the whole point of all of this.”

By guardian.co.uk

One hundred and sixty-six people were killed in a series of gun and grenade assaults in Mumbai in 2008. Photograph: EPA

Eleven policemen and four schoolchildren were among the 19 people killed in a suicide bomb attack on a police station in Lakki Marwat, a district of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa bordering Punjab. According to the police, 600 kg of explosive material were used in the blast which brought down the police station and damaged several buildings in the vicinity including a hospital, a mosque and a school.

The death toll is expected to rise as many of the 40 injured are battling for life. The suicide bomber rammed the explosive-laden vehicle into the rear wall of the police station early in the morning.

The schoolchildren were killed as their van was parked nearby.

As many of the buildings in the vicinity bore the brunt of the huge explosion, police cordoned off the area while efforts were on to pull out people buried in the rubble. After the explosion, police rounded up 10 persons suspected to be linked to terrorist groups.

Area police said this was the handiwork of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has claimed responsibility for last week’s suicide attacks on Shias in Lahore and Quetta. Talking to reporters, a senior police officer said: “The TTP is all out to hurt us. They are targeting everyone. We have lost personnel from the level of constable to Assistant Inspector General. The frontier police is writing its history with blood.”

On Sunday, The Daily Times had reported that terrorists had resurfaced in the suburbs of Peshawar — the capital of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa — and were imposing their writ by declaring a ban on shaving beards. After holding a barber captive for a fortnight, they released him last week with the diktat that barbers would be killed if they shaved beards.

By Thehindu.

People gather at the site of suicide bombing at a police station in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan on Monday.