35 Pakistanis killed in bombing at Peshawar market

The Taliban have struck again in Pakistan’s northwest, in a bombing today at a Peshawar supermarket. Dawn is reporting that 34 people have been killed, while SAMAA is reporting 35 killed, with more than 100 wounded. Many of those killed were “severely burnt” according to SAMAA. The death toll may rise as more people are thought to be trapped under the rubble, and many of those wounded are said to be in critical condition.

The attack clearly was designed to draw people to the major, secondary bombing. A small initial blast attracted a crowd, and was immediately followed by a far more powerful bomb that killed the Pakistanis. The Taliban haven’t taken credit for the attack as of yet, and given that plenty of civilians were killed, they may not (update: the Taliban have denied responsibility for the attack, and claimed it was “an attempt by foreign secret agencies who are doing it to malign us.”) The excerpt below is from Dawn:

Twin bomb blasts minutes apart ripped through a crowded supermarket killing at least 34 people and injuring more than 80 in Peshawar late Saturday.

The explosions took place in the Khyber Super Market, which is surrounded by residential flats for students, shops, a fruit juices kiosk and a hotel.

“At least 34 people were killed and more than 80 injured in the blasts,” senior local police official Ijaz Khan told AFP, saying the blasts were only four minutes apart.

“The first blast was quite small but as people gathered close to the site of the explosion, the second one, which was real big one, went off,” he said.

The provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters in Peshawar that “a few journalists were also injured in the blasts”, without providing details.

The Taliban have carried out five other major attacks in the past week; four of them were in the Peshawar area. On June 8, the Taliban killed four people in a bombing in Matni in Peshawar and two people in Dir. On June 6, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 18 people in an attack at a bakery in Nowshera. On June 5, the Taliban killed six more people in a bombing, again in the Matni area of Peshawar. And on June 4, the Taliban gunned down three security personnel and two women in Peshawar.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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6 Comments

  • Charles says:

    So was this good or bad taliban that did bombing.

  • naresh c. says:

    If these fidayeen attacks continue, Mullah Omar will get to call Loya Jirga for Pakistan long before he gets to call Loya Jirga for Afghanistan.

  • kimball says:

    Isn’t Pakistan coming closer and closer to some kind of
    civil war?
    Peshawar is mainly a Phatan city, the grieving is neverending.
    How many tribe “elders” have been killed in the last five years? A 100 or more?
    It is hard work to change the religious mentality of a whole nation, but strong currents of salafist ideology,
    stemming from the Arab peninsula and massively funded
    by petrodollars + leftover desperados from the Iraqi scene, are being very successful in choking all opposition.
    Liberal as as well as traditional Sufi values.
    Kashmir standoff is like the other part of the Palestine.
    Neverending rallying centres for the dream of a vast Africa – Asia 9th century Kalifat.
    The Big Game are surely back in Capitals!

  • villiger says:

    This is a reminder to the Pakistani Establishment how vulnerable it is. And if it is as vulnerable as it appears, Pakistan is going to be torn apart. I fear their fate is sealed.
    Just one more step on their descent into chaos.

  • gfgwgc says:

    Early reports suggested that there were three explosions – the first one being a cooking gas cylinder – followed by the two explosions including one by a suicide bomber. I find this to be a curious combination especially the gas explosion since an open gas cylinder will put out a noticeable odor which would serve as a warning. I also no longer find a mention of the said suicide bomber.
    The other thing of note is that the Talibs are denying an involvement in this one when they are normally not averse to taking credit.
    Any insight?

  • Charles says:

    CIA Head Confronts Pakistan Over Al Qaeda Tip Off
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20110612/wl_atlantic/ciaheadconfrontspakistanovertippingalqaeda38748
    with the death of OBL, taliban & AQ interest in fighting the USA will wane. they will be much more focused on fighting Pakistan and Afghanistan. They will focus more on Pakistan too because its increasingly a softer target than afghanistan.

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