Al-Qaeda strikes back: 80 killed in Pak suicide blasts

Agencies

Islamabad, 14 May 2011: Unleashing vengeance the al Qaeda and Taliban swore on Pakistan after US commados killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, two Taliban suicide bombers on Friday conducted deadliest attacks on the Frontier Constabulary Training Centre in Shabqadar area of Charsadda district, killing at least 80 people, including 11 civilians and 69 paramilitary police recruits heading home for a break after eight months of training.  At least 140 people wounded in the twin bombings are fighting for their lives on hospital beds, officials and eyewitnesses say.

 

Banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed the responsibility for the attacks, with its spokesman Sajjad Mohmand calling media offices from an undisclosed location and vowing further reprisal strikes in retaliation for the death of the al Qaeda leader. 

``We have done this to avenge the Abbottabad incident,’’ Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told AP in a phone call. He warned that the group was also planning attacks on Americans living inside Pakistan.

 

The blasts in the northwest were a reminder of the savagery of al-Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan.

 

They occurred even as the country faces international suspicion that elements within its security forces may have been harboring bin Laden, who was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, about a three hours’ drive from the scene of the bombing.

 

The bombers blew themselves up soon after dawn as the newly-trained cadets were on their way out of the main gate of the training centre on a 10-day leave. “A bomber, riding a motorbike, first struck the recruits getting on minibuses parked just outside the gate and when other FC people came to their help, a donkey cart laden with explosives was detonated,” said FC Inspector General Akbar Hoti.

 

At least 80 people were killed, including 66 recruits, and around 120 people were wounded, said police officer Liaqat Ali Khan.

 

The scene was littered with shards of glass mixed with blood and flesh. The explosions destroyed at least 10 vans. It was the first major militant attack in Pakistan since bin Laden’s death on May 2, and the deadliest this year.