Pakistani rescue workers carry a victim who was injured in a suicide bomb blast targeting a Judicial Complex, to a local hospital in Peshawar, the provincial capital of militancy-hit Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, yesterday.
PESHAWAR: Four people were killed when a suicide bomber posing as a legal clerk blew himself up and his companion ‘clerk’ opened fire at the court complex in the city of Peshawar yesterday, officials said.
An injured guard described how the two young men tried to get past his checkpoint. “They introduced themselves as court clerks and refused a body search. One of them pulled out a pistol and fired at me after I insisted on a search,” Tahir Khan, 36, said from hospital. “I was hit on my right arm. I shouted and police arrived and firing started. I heard a blast but I was bleeding and was later taken to hospital.”
Sayed Jameel Shah, a spokesman for Peshawar’s main Lady Reading Hospital, said it had received four bodies and was treating 25 people, including four policemen and seven lawyers. “One suicide bomber blew himself up in the court of an additional sessions judge. The other was shot dead by police,” said senior police officer Masood Khan Afridi. “We have cleared the area.” He denied reports that some judges and lawyers had been held hostage inside the courts.
“Terrorists have attacked at a time when general elections are very near and the atmosphere for election is smooth,” said Information Minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain.
On February 18, militants, including a suicide bomber, attacked the office of a senior official in Peshawar, killing six people.
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday hailed parliament’s historic completion of a full term in office as a victory for democracy as he gave his farewell address to the nation. The polling date has yet to be announced but officials say the Election Commission has recommended May 8, 9 or 10. AFP
