Taleban car bomb carnage as Hillary Clinton arrives

Published on Wednesday 28 October 2009 21:20

MORE than 90 people, mainly women and children, were killed when a suspected Taleban car bomb exploded in a Pakistan market yesterday, as US secretary of state Hillary Clinton arrived in the country to pledge support for the campaign against Islamist militants.

More than 200 were injured in the blast in the north-western city of Peshawar, the deadliest in a series of attacks this month.

The government blamed militants seeking to avenge this month's army offensive against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in their South Waziristan stronghold, close to the Afghan border.

The bomb destroyed much of the Meena Bazaar in Peshawar's old town, a warren of narrow alleys clogged with stalls and shops selling dresses, toys and cheap jewellery.

It collapsed buildings, including a mosque, and set scores of shops ablaze. The wounded sat amid burning debris and body parts as a huge plume of grey smoke rose above the city.

Crying for help, men tried to pull survivors from beneath wreckage. One man carried away a baby with a bloodied face and a group of men rescued a young boy covered in dust. But others found only the dead.

A two-storey building collapsed as firefighters doused it with water, triggering more panic.

Mrs Clinton, on her first visit to Pakistan as secretary of state, was a three-hour drive away in the capital, Islamabad, when the bomb exploded.

She praised the army's anti-Taleban offensive in South Waziristan and offered support. "I want you to know this fight is not Pakistan's alone," she said. "These extremists are committed to destroying what is dear to us as much as they are committed to destroying that which is dear to you and to all people. So this is our struggle as well."

Standing beside her, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the violence would not break his government's will to fight back. "The resolve and determination will not be shaken," he said. "People are carrying out such heinous crimes – they want to shake our resolve. I want to address them: We will not buckle. We will fight you. We will fight you because we want peace and stability in Pakistan."

Peshawar, the economic hub of the north-west and the seat of the provincial government, has long been a favourite target of militants who control large parts of territory to the north in tribal regions near the Afghan border. Extremism has flourished there since it was used as a staging ground in the 1980s for US-funded fighters preparing to battle the Soviet-installed regime in Afghanistan.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but that is not unusual, especially when the victims are civilians.

Three bombs have exploded in Peshawar this month, including one that killed more than 50 people. They are part of at least ten major attacks in Pakistan that have killed 250 people either claimed by or blamed on Taleban militants.

The Taleban have threatened more attacks if the army does not end its ground offensive in South Waziristan, where the military has sent 30,000 troops to flush out insurgents.