At least 2 die in car bomb attack

Washington Post

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least two people were killed and several injured Tuesday in a suicide car bomb attack outside a Peshawar sports stadium where a three-day athletic competition had just finished.

The attack at the stadium unfolded amid growing signs of deteriorating security near Pakistan’s northwest border with Afghanistan and drew immediate condemnation from Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, who said such attacks imperil stability in the region and threaten the country’s increasingly fragile economy.

On Monday, armed Taliban insurgents hijacked a convoy of NATO supply trucks that were heading through Pakistan’s rugged mountains on their way to provide military vehicles and other supplies to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan.

The car bombing occurred Tuesday evening at the gates of the Quayum Sports Stadium, where hundreds had gathered to celebrate the final ceremony in a three-day sports competition for Pakistani athletes.

A suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives only moments after several top provincial officials had passed through the gate on their way out of the stadium, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, a spokesman for the provincial government.

Kareem Khan, a stadium spectator who exited the gates as the blast occurred, said debris and bodies were scattered across the main parking lot of the stadium. “The explosion was so loud that I fell on the ground and lost consciousness for a moment,” Khan said. “When I stood up, I saw a couple of damaged cars with broken windscreens.”

Peshawar police Chief Malik Naveed said the bomber blew up his car when security personnel tried to stop his vehicle at the gate. The estimate of how many people were injured ranged from five to nine.

Pakistani security officials said Tuesday that they were working to recover the trucks hijacked Monday, but attempts so far had been unsuccessful. Pakistani troops from the Frontier Corps were expected to flood the area and carry out raids on militant hide-outs.

Taliban fighters raided the 13-truck convoy Monday afternoon as it approached the town of Jamrud, a key NATO supply transit hub about three miles east of the Afghan border.

Taliban fighters opened the containers in plain view of Pakistani security forces and made off with millions of dollars in sophisticated military equipment, including armored humvee vehicles. The insurgents later posed for several photos next to the humvees draped with flags of the Pakistani Taliban.