Saturday, December 29, 2012

6 killed, 48 wounded in a passenger bus blast in Karachi; 21 missing Pakistani policemen found shot dead

Looks like a banner week for Islam in Pakistan.
KARACHI: At least six people were killed when a loud explosion ripped apart a passenger bus parked outside the gates of Karachi Cantonment Station, the main railway station in the city.

The large blast completely ripped opened the roof of the bus, scheduled to depart for Sargodha, which caught fire following the explosion.

“There are reports of five people being killed in the blast. The injured have been shifted to Jinnah Hospital,” said Ahmed Chinoy, the head of the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC).

At least 48 other people were also injured in the blast, with five of them said to be in critical condition, hospital officials said.

“We have received 48 patients, some of which are critical. Six people killed have been shifted to the mortuary,” confirmed Seemi Jamali, a senior doctor at the Jinnah Hospital.

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Twenty-one tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region early Sunday, government officials said.

Officials found the bodies shortly after midnight in the Jabai area of Frontier Region Peshawar after being notified by one policeman who escaped, said Naveed Akbar Khan, a top political official in the area. Another policeman was found seriously wounded, said Khan.

The 23 policemen went missing before dawn Thursday when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in Frontier Region Peshawar. Two policemen were also killed in the attacks.

Militants lined the policemen up on a cricket pitch late Saturday night and gunned them down, said another local official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

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