The Taliban claimed credit for a suicide attack that took place early this morning at a police headquarters in Peshawar and killed six people and wounded dozens more. Today’s attack is the latest that has targeted Pakistan’s security forces.
The Taliban suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station, killing five policemen and a soldier, and wounding 26 more Pakistanis. Several people are still thought to be trapped in the rubble. The police station was leveled in the large blast, which was caused by more than 600 pounds of explosives.
The attack took place in a high-security area of Peshawar. The police station is close to the US Consulate as well as to other Pakistani military installations. The police station housed a unit of the Crime Investigation Department along with the Special Services Group, the Pakistani Army commandos.
The Taliban said the attack was carried out to avenge slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and to punish the Pakistani state for permitting US Predator airstrikes, targeting terrorist groups in the tribal areas, and failing to impose sharia, or Islamic law.
“We will continue attacks on security forces until an Islamic system is implemented in Pakistan, because the Pakistani system is un-Islamic,” Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan told Reuters.
“We will further step up these attacks to avenge Osama bin Laden’s martyrdom,” Ihsan told AFP. “These attacks will continue until the US drone strikes and ongoing Pakistani military operations are stopped in the tribal regions.”
The Pakistani Taliban have been able to penetrate high-security areas in Pakistan’s major cities and execute attacks. Today’s attack in Peshawar took place just three days after a suicide assault team stormed a naval base in Karachi and killed 10 servicemen and destroyed two P-3C Orion aircraft. At least of two members of the Taliban assault team escaped during the fighting. And on May 20, the Taliban detonated a car bomb that targeted US consular officials in the same secured zone in Peshawar; no one was killed in the attack.
Over the past three years, the Taliban and allied groups, including the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, have struck at a number of key security targets: military and police training facilities; intelligence headquarters for the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and the Federal Investigation Agency; a weapons complex that houses nuclear weapons components; and even the Pakistani Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and the Navy Headquarters in Islamabad.
The Taliban have also carried out hundreds of smaller attacks against police stations and army checkpoints, police and army patrols, and other targets, including government buildings, mosques, shrines, religious processions, and hospitals, during that same time period. Many, but not all, of the small-scale attacks have taken place in Pakistan’s insurgency-infested province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Major terror assaults on security targets in Pakistan’s cities in 2009-2011:
May 25, 2011
A suicide bomber killed five policemen and a soldier at a police headquarters in a secured area in Peshawar.
May 22, 2011
A suicide assault team stormed a naval base in Karachi and killed 10 servicemen and destroyed two P-3C Orion aircraft. At least of two members of the Taliban assault team escaped during the fighting.
May 13, 2011
A suicide bomber killed more than 80 Pakistani police recruits and civilians in an attack at a training facility in Charsadda.
Feb. 10, 2011
A teenage suicide bomber killed 31 army recruits at the Punjab Regiment Center in the city of Mardan.
Nov. 11, 2010
A suicide assault team penetrated security at the Crime Investigation Department headquarters in a secured area of Karachi. The attack killed 17 people.
March 12, 2010
Two suicide bombers killed 39 people in a simultaneous attack against military personnel in a cantonment in Lahore.
March 8, 2010
A suicide bomber killed 11 people and wounded 37 more in an attack on the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore.
Jan. 6, 2010
Tararrkhal, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir
A suicide bomber killed three security personnel as he attempted to get inside an Army barracks in the Tararrkhal region in Pakistan-held Kashmir.
Dec. 8, 2009
A suicide assault team killed 12 people while targeting a headquarters for the Inter-Services Intelligence agency in the city of Multan in South Punjab.
Dec. 4, 2009
A Taliban suicide assault team estimated at between three to five men entered a mosque in the city and opened fire on the worshipers and detonated suicide vests, killing 40 and wounding 83 more. The attack killed two senior generals and wounded another.
Dec. 2, 2009
A Taliban suicide bomber detonated outside the headquarters of the Pakistani Navy in Islamabad, killing one security guard and critically wounding two others.
Nov. 13, 2009
In an attack that targeted the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency in the provincial capital, 10 Pakistanis were killed and more than 35 wounded.
Nov. 2, 2009
A Taliban suicide bomber killed 34 Pakistanis and wounded scores more in an attack in Rawalpindi. The attack targeted military personnel as they lined up to cash their checks.
Oct. 23, 2009
A Taliban suicide bomber killed seven people during an attack at a security checkpoint at the Kamra Air Weapon Complex in the district of Attock in Punjab province.
Oct. 16, 2009
A pair of suicide bombers, including a female, attacked a police station and a building housing an intelligence service in Peshawar, killing 11.
Oct. 15, 2009
Terrorist assault teams attacked the Federal Investigation Agency building, the Manawan police training centre, and the Elite Force Headquarters in Lahore. In the attacks, 26 people were killed, including 12 policemen and nine terrorists.
Oct. 10, 2009
An assault team attacked the Army General Headquarters and took 42 security personnel captive. In the ensuing battle, 11 soldiers were killed, including a brigadier general and a lieutenant colonel, along with nine members of the assault team, and 39 hostages were freed.
June 11, 2009
Hakeemullah Mehsud, the cousin of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, and a group called the Abdullah Azzam Brigade both claimed responsibility for the deadly attack that killed 17 people and destroyed a large section of the hotel.
May 27, 2009
After an assault team opened fire on security personnel and stormed the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, 23 people were killed, including policemen and ISI officials. During the attack, a truck laden with explosives was detonated in front of the police headquarters, leveling the building.
March 30, 2009
The Taliban killed 34 police and recruits during a terrorist assault and eight-hour siege on a police training facility in the eastern city of Lahore.
March 3, 2009
A terrorist strike team estimated at about 12 men ambushed the Sri Lankan cricket team as it traveled to a sports stadium in Lahore. Five policemen and two civilians were killed, and dozens were wounded, including some cricket officials.
