Updated on
Summary
A car bomb struck a busy market in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 106 people mostly women and children. More than 200 people were wounded in the blast in Peshawar, the deadliest in a surge of attacks by suspected insurgents this month.Wednesday's bomb destroyed much of the Mina Bazaar in Peshawar's old town, a warren of narrow alleys clogged with stalls and shops selling dresses, toys and cheap jewelry that drew many female shoppers and children in the conservative city.The blast collapsed buildings, including a mosque, and set scores of shops ablaze. The wounded sat amid burning debris and parts of bodies as a huge plume of gray smoke rose above the city.Crying for help, men tried to pull survivors from beneath wreckage. One man carried away a baby with a bloody face and a group of men rescued a young boy covered in dust, but others found only bodies of the dead. A two-story building collapsed as firefighters doused it with water, triggering more panic.There was a deafening sound and I was like a blind man for a few minutes, said Mohammad Usman, who was wounded in the shoulder. I heard women and children crying and started to help others. There was the smell of human flesh in the air.No group claimed responsibility for the bombing. North West Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said 100 people were killed. A doctor said 60 of the dead were either women or children.Three bombs have exploded in Peshawar this month, including one that killed more than 50 people. They are part of at least 10 major attacks in Pakistan that have killed 250 people either claimed by or blamed on Taliban militants.Most have targeted security forces, but some bombs have gone off in public places, apparently to undercut support for the army's assault on the border and expose the weakness of the government.The Taliban have warned Pakistan that they would stage more attacks if the army does not end its ground offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region, where the military has sent 30,000 troops to flush out insurgents. South Waziristan is a major base for the Pakistani Taliban and other foreign militants.The bombing was the deadliest since explosions hit homecoming festivities for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi in October 2007, killing about 150 people. Bhutto was later slain in a separate attack.
