PAKISTAN: Suicide bombs kill 37 in Pakistan

The wave of bomb attacks continued in Pakistan on Thursday (July 19). In two separate incidents a total of at least 37 people were killed. IN the southern town of Hub a car bomber, apparently targeting a vehicle carrying Chinese workers involved in mining activities, rammed into a police van which was escorting them. The workers escaped unhurt but all seven policemen and 23 bystanders were killed. Twenty-eight people were wounded and taken to hospital in nearby Karachi The attack in Hub, which lies at the border of Baluchistan and Sindh provinces, was the first in southern Pakistan during the recent surge in violence. It's unclear whether it's related to the Islamist militant backlash against the storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque, or was linked to a long-running separatist movement in Baluchistan. Another seven people, including policemen, were killed in a car bomb attack in the far northwestern city of Hangu early on Thursday. The bomber tried to enter the building just as young recruits were starting training. According to witnesses, the attacker tried to crash through the gates but blew himself up as security guards tried to stop him. Hangu, which itself has a history of sectarian violence, is close to Pakistan's lawless tribal regions on the Afghan border, known as hotbeds of support for al Qaeda and Taliban militants. A wave of bomb attacks since the Red Mosque siege has killed more than 160 people. A large number of al Qaeda fighters and their allies fled to Pakistan's tribal areas after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001. President Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday he had no intention of declaring a state of emergency to counter the growing insecurity, and gave assurances that elections due later this year would go ahead as planned.

ITN Source | July 19, 2007

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