ISLAMABAD - A suicide bomber attacked a crowded mosque south of the Pakistani capital on Sunday, killing 22 people and wounding dozens more, officials said. A senior Pakistani Taliban commander claimed responsibility Sunday for the Islamabad attack, saying it was in retaliation for U.S. drone missile strikes against militants in Pakistan near the Afghan border.The suicide bomber set off his explosives Sunday at the entrance to a mosque in Chakwal city in Punjab province, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Islamabad, during a religious congregation, said Nadim Hasan Asif, a top security official in Punjab. He said the blast killed 22 people and injured more than 30. ‘The suspected man was stopped at the entrance and pushed himself in and exploded,’ Asif said.
Another police officer, Nasir Khan Durrani, said the attack could have been much worse. ‘Had he succeeded in exploding inside it could have caused a much bigger loss because there were hundreds of people inside,’ Durrani said.
Chaudhry Nasrullah, the top health official in Chakwal, confirmed that 22 people were killed and that more than 50 were injured, a dozen of them critically. He appealed to the government to send helicopters to evacuate the most seriously wounded.
Farid Ali, who left the mosque just before the attack occurred, said he felt the blast on his back and looked back and saw smoke and dust. ‘I saw several people lying dead,’ he told Express News TV. ‘There was blood everywhere.’
Local television footage showed pools of blood on the road in front of the mosque. Torn clothes and a pair of shoes also littered the ground. Police investigators were shown collecting evidence, not far from a car and four motorcycles that were damaged by the blast.
A policeman with both his legs bandaged and another wounded man whose shirt was stained with blood were shown on hospital beds crying in pain. A woman standing in the emergency ward of the hospital wailed, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God.’
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack, saying it was masterminded by people who are against the state and want to give Islam a bad name.
| Seems to be a lot of that going on in Pakistain. |