The bombing was the seventh attack in less than two weeks in and around Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest. The attacks have killed more than 80 people.The bomber, who arrived in a taxi, was being searched by police officers at the gate of the city’s lower court when he detonated explosives on his body, government official Sahibzada Anees said.
Several damaged motorbikes were strewn about the site, and firefighters sprayed water on a charred, smoking white car.
Dr. Saib Gul of the city’s Lady Reading Hospital said 19 people were killed in the attack and 51 had been wounded. At least three of the dead were police. “These attacks will not deter us in our fight against these beasts who are killing our children,” said Bashir Ahmad Bilour, senior minister of the North West Frontier Province.
The army launched its offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan in mid-October. It has retaken many towns in the region, but the militants say they avoided fighting and will now begin a guerrilla campaign.
The United States has welcomed the assault, but wants the army to do more against the insurgents in the border area blamed for violence across the border in Afghanistan. Pakistan officials flagged the offensive in South Waziristan several months before it actually began, something Bilour claimed allowed the militants to escape and plan the current wave of terror.
“Unfortunately the announcement of the operation in Waziristan prior to the actual operation caused this problem,” he said. “They [the militants] are hiding in villages surrounding Peshawar and make their way in despite security.” Since the beginning of October, more than 300 people have been killed in bombings and militant raids on government, civilian and Western targets in the country, most of them in the northwest.
