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The bombings happened near military facilities
in the garrison city of Rawalpindi [AFP] |
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Two successive suicide bomb blasts have rocked the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 60 others, police and military spokesmen say.
The first bomber on Tuesday detonated his exposives on a bus carrying government workers.
Minutes later, a motorcycle bomb exploded in a nearby market.
Military and government officials said the bus was believed to be carrying defence ministry employees.
"It's terrorism because innocent people were killed in both blasts," Major-General Waheed Arshad, a military spokesman, said.
The white-coloured 40-seater bus was completely destroyed and mutilated bodies lay on the street.
"There was a huge bang then I saw the bus in a mangled heap," Mohammad Tahir, a witness, said.
"Body parts were scattered across the road and there was blood everywhere."
Soldiers targeted
The second bomb blast happened about 3km away in the Royal Artillery bazaar.
"Today's attack was in the heart of the high security zone. This cannot be allowed to
go on and measures have to be taken to ensure political stability"
Ijaz-ul Haq, religious affairs minister |
Security officials said it was timed to target army officers who use the route to reach the military headquarters.
Pakistan has suffered a string of attacks since the security forces crushed armed students at the Red Mosque in Islamabad and a peace agreement in the North Waziristan region broke down in July.
"Today's attack was in the heart of the high security zone. This cannot be allowed to go on and measures have to be taken to ensure political stability," Ijaz-ul Haq, religious affairs minister, said.
Brigadier Javed Cheema, interior ministry spokesman, said "both suicide blasts are interlinked and acts of the same network".
He said that the "tentacles" of the recent violence extended to Pakistan's tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either bombing.
Cheema said the authorities were examining whether Tuesday's attacks were linked to the two suicide attacks in Islamabad in July that killed 31 people.
Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, said there was a lot of resentment in Pakistan over the US-led so-called war on terrorism and the Red Mosque assault.
"Pakistan has been put under tremendous pressure by the Americans in spite of the fact it has done a considerable amount of work to restore order in the tribal areas," he said.
"But the demand on Pakistan has always been 'do more, do more'. Now Pakistan is paying the price of doing more."
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Source: |
Al Jazeera and agencies
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