Asia-Pacific

Suicide bombers kill 62, wound 111 in Pakistan

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-09 23:29

"After the blast, I saw destruction. I saw bodies everywhere. I saw the injured crying for help," he told The Associated Press in Peshawar, where he helped escort some of the wounded.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, but Mohmand is one of several areas in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt where Taliban and al-Qaida members are believed to be hiding.

The Pakistani army has carried out operations in Mohmand, but it has been unable to extirpate the militants. Its efforts to rely on citizen militias to take on the militants have had limited success there.

Information from the tribal belt is difficult to verify independently because access to the area is heavily restricted.

Generally speaking, there have been fewer attacks in Pakistan this year as compared to previous years. In the last three months of 2009, for instance, more than 500 people were killed in a surge of attacks in the country.

The attacks that have occurred this year have inflicted extraordinary casualties.

The deadliest attack occurred on New Year's Day, when a suicide car bomber struck a sports event near a meeting of tribesmen who supervise an anti-Taliban militia near Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area. Ninety-six people died.

But some of the worst attacks in 2010 have occurred far from the northwest, in cities such as Karachi in the south and Lahore in eastern Punjab province. Several have been sectarian in nature, though the Pakistani Taliban - who are extremist Sunni Muslims - are believed to have played a role in some or been affiliated with the offenders.

Last week in Lahore, two suicide bombers attacked Pakistan's most famous Sufi shrine, known as Data Darbar. The attack killed 47 people and sparked protests among Pakistanis, most of whom practice a moderate, Sufi-influenced form of Islam.

The attacks in Punjab have prompted Pakistan's government to agree to an all-parties conference on how to cope with the terrorist menace on their soil.

Still, the main bases of militant groups in Pakistan are believed to be in the northwest, particularly the tribal regions where the government has long had little influence.

Pakistani army offensives in the region are believed to have contributed to a decrease in attacks this year, as are US missile strikes believed to have taken out some Taliban and al-Qaida operatives and kept the survivors on the run. But violence has continued to flare up regardless.

Also Friday, US Sens. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, and Jack Reed, a committee member, met with Pakistani officials in Islamabad to discuss their countries' cooperation in the fight against extremists.

In a statement issued after he met the American lawmakers, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said both countries should try harder to increase mutual trust.

He said Pakistan was doing its utmost to combat militancy, and "expected friendly countries like (the) US to share with it credible and actionable information rather than indulging in blame game, in order to achieve our shared and common goal of succeeding against militancy."

Over the past decade Pakistan and the US have frequently questioned each other's motives in the region.

Pakistan has been suspected of fomenting problems in Afghanistan as a part of its regional struggle with India, while Islamabad has suggested that Washington gives favorable treatment to New Delhi in areas such as nuclear armament.

In a reference to its larger archrival, Gilani said the US should take a "fair and nondiscriminatory approach ... in its relations with the regional countries."

In recent visits to Pakistan, US officials have stressed that the relationship between the two countries has improved.