Suicide blast hits Pakistan police station

Taliban claims responsibility for car bomb attack in Peshawar, which left at least six dead and up to 26 wounded.

Suicide blast in Peshawar, Pakistan
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 The car bomb attack targeting a police station left several wounded [Reuters]

A car bomb explosion has badly damaged a police station in Pakistan’s volatile city of Peshawar, killing six people and wounding several others, police said.

Recent Pakistan attacks

May 13 – 98 killed in Charsadda suicide bomb attack

May 16 – Gunmen shoot dead a Saudi diplomat in Karachi

May 18 – 17 including 15 insurgents killed in security post gun battle on the outskirts of Peshawar

May 20 – One Pakistani killed and 12 others, including two US nationals, wounded in US consulate attack in Peshawar

May 21 – Bomb attack kills 16 in Khyber tribal region

May 22 – Militants storm a naval base in Karachi, killing 10 military personnel and destroying two US-supplied surveillance aircrafts.

Officials said the blast early on Wednesday all but flattened the police station. Police said up to 26 people were wounded.

The bomber’s target appeared to be a building belonging to the police’s criminal investigation department, but Pakistani army facilities were also nearby, said Liaquat Ali Khan, a senior police official in the area.

Authorities were searching for bodies or survivors in the rubble, he said.

Residents said the explosion rattled windows throughout the city. Television footage showed police and soldiers cordoning off the affected district.

The incident occurred about 1km from the US consulate and in the same district where a car bomb exploded last week as a US consulate convoy passed by.

One man was killed and about a dozen people were wounded, including two US nationals, in that incident.

The Pakistani Taliban told the AFP news agency it was behind Wednesday’s suicide attack.

“We will continue attacks on security forces until an Islamic system is implemented in Pakistan, because the Pakistani system is un-Islamic,” Ehsanhullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, told the Reuters news agency, adding the attack was also in revenge for bin Laden’s death.

A string of attacks in Pakistan have followed the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden earlier this month.

The Pakistani Taliban vowed revenge and have already claimed three attacks since the May 2 raid.

In the most high-profile attack, armed men stormed a naval base in the city of Karachi late on Sunday night. At least 13 people were killed and 15 more injured in the firefight that followed.

The commander of the naval base was relieved of his duties and replaced, according to a statement from the navy on Wednesday.

A committee has been formed to investigate how the gunmen had infiltrated the base.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies