Up to 25 innocent people were killed and another 68 were injured in two
terrorist attacks in Rawalpindi near the capital yesterday, the spokesman for
Pakistan's Interior Ministry Javed Iqbal Cheema said at a news briefing.
Preliminary investigations and technical evidence indicated that both of the
blasts occurred on Tuesday were suicide attacks, Cheema said, adding that the
two suicide attacks were interlinked and act of the same network.
Cheema confirmed that 25 people were killed and 68 others were injured in the
two suicide attacks.
The first blast took place in a bus, which was targeted at Qasim market in
Rawalpindi, some 15 kilometers south of the capital Islamabad. The army
spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said the bus belonged to Ministry of
Defense.
Police officer Syed Murawat Ali Shah told reporters that someone threw a bomb
into the bus and completely destroyed it.
Cheema said the bus was used to carry civilian employees of different
departments of the Ministry from their homes to offices and back. He said the
army was not the target.
Another blast happened in a car at R. A. Bazaar in the military area of the
city less than 15 minutes after the first blast. R.A bazaar is located some 1.5
kilometers from the site of the first blast.
An officer of the Federal Investigation Agency Deputy Commandant Liaquat Ali
said preliminary probe suggested that both attacks were carried out by suicide
bombers.
Superintendent Police Operation Yasin Farooq said that a motorcyclist
exploded his motorcycle when the area was crowded.
Cheema disclosed that the police had busted a conspiracy of five suicide
bombers and planners and arrested them in Islamabad. A sixth member of the gang
was caught along with a suicide jacket.
Extremism and terrorism if not effectively checked would destroy the fabric
of the society, Cheema said, adding that they had information that tentacles of
the wave of terrorism extended to the tribal areas on the border with
Afghanistan.
He said the North West Frontier Province government would plug the loopholes
that were used by terrorist elements to penetrate into settled areas for killing
innocent people, and the Federal Government was assisting the provincial
government in this regard.
Cheema reiterated the unshakable resolve of the government to hunt terrorists
down and bring them to justice with all force and means at its disposal. He said
the government would use all options to establish its writ.
He said the heinous acts underlined the need for an all-out collective
national effort to tighten the noose and eliminate the menace of terrorism.
Cheema said the federal and provincial governments and the law enforcement
agencies were doing their utmost to overcome the despicable activities. In
recent past timely detection of a number of plots by the intelligence agencies
nipped the evil in the bud in several cases, saving precious lives.
He said it was vital that every patriotic citizen should perform national
duty in this hour of need, remain vigilant and help the law enforcement agencies
by reporting promptly to them if any suspicious elements or activities were
spotted.
President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz condemned the
blasts and expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.
Aziz said militancy and extremism were threats to the society and they needed
to be resisted for the country's stability and better future. He added that
investigation teams had started working to get clues about the perpetrators of
heinous acts.
The security in Islamabad was put on high alert after the two blasts on
Tuesday. The law enforcement agencies imposed strict checking measures at every
entry and exit point in the capital.
The Pakistani government stormed the Lal Masjid, or red mosque in the capital
in early July. Thereafter the militants in North Waziristan scrapped a peace
deal with the government in mid-July and threatened to launch more attacks on
security forces. Various attacks, most of which targeted security forces,
occurred ever since, leaving hundreds of people dead.