Pakistani militants kill at least 24 in market

McClatchy Newspapers

ISLAMABAD — At least 24 people were killed Tuesday in the third bombing in three days in Pakistan’s militancy-plagued northwest, as extremists continued to wreak revenge for a U.S.-backed offensive against Taliban guerrillas.

The car bomb ripped through a market in Charsadda, a town in the North West Frontier Province. More than 100 were wounded, and the death toll may be as high as 32, according to some reports.

On Sunday, a suicide attacker targeted the leader of an anti- Taliban militia on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Peshawar, killing 12, and the suicide bombing Monday of a police checkpoint in Peshawar claimed three lives.

Islamic extremists unleashed their latest campaign early last month to coincide with an army ground operation against the Pakistani Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan. More than 300 civilians have died in a wave of bombings and gun attacks, including an attack in a Peshawar shopping district two weeks ago that killed more than 115.

The assault on civilians appears to be an attempt to build public pressure to end the military campaign.

The car bomb in Charsadda exploded around 4:30 p.m. local time, when the market was full of shoppers, women and children among them. Witnesses said bodies were strewn around the bazaar. Police officials estimated that 110 to 130 pounds of explosives were used, packed with ball bearings and metal shards. Storefronts and parked vehicles were crumpled and shattered.

“There was no security lapse here,” local Police Chief Riaz Khan said.

The northwest province is taking the brunt of the violence and also is hosting those displaced by the fighting, from the Swat valley earlier this year and more recently from South Waziristan. The province is populated mostly by Pashtuns, who compose the biggest ethnic group in Afghanistan.