Pakistan Explosion
The suicide attack on a five star hotel in Peshawar has killed 15 people and wounded more than 60. Two UN officials, one from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office and the other from UNICEF are among those killed. Two other UN officials are still missing.
The UNHCR official was part of an emergency team helping with the refugee crisis arising out of Pakistan’s Swat operation against the Taliban. The Information Minister of North Western Frontier Province Iftikhar Hussain has described the blast as a reaction to the ongoing army offensive in Swat and Malakand Division.
Search teams are still going through the blast site. A heavy blanket of smoke has made search operations very difficult. Police have cordoned off the area. Windows of nearby buildings have been shattered due to the impact of the blast. 30 to 40 vehicles have been destroyed
The bombers struck the Pearl Continental Hotel at about 10 pm local time. The attack reduced a section of the hotel to concrete rubble and twisted steel and left a huge crater in a parking lot. A number of foreign visitors and dignitaries were present when the attack took place.
Tuesday night’s suicide attack in the capital of the North Western Frontier Province came a week after Taliban leaders warned they would carry out major attacks in large cities in retaliation to the Pakistan army’s Swat offensive.
After clearing the Swat region of Taliban militants, the Pakistan army is now moving southwards into Malakand. The US is putting pressure on Islamabad to go into north and south Waziristan as well.
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