Deaths in Rawalpindi suicide blast

04/02/2008| IslamWeb

At least three people have been killed in a suicide bombing near the offices of the army's engineering deaprtment in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi.

The attack on Monday reportedly destroyed a minibus on a road running through a market in the Pakistani garrison city, police officials said.

At least eight people were also injured in the explosion.

"The bomber was apparently on a motorcycle and rammed into a military vehicle," a military official at the scene said.

A witness said that several vehicles were badly damaged in the blast and army caps could be seen scattered on the ground.

"I am on the spot now, it appears to be a suicide blast. There are some casualties but we are not sure how many as they have been  shifted to hospital," Saud Aziz, a city police chief, said.

Suicide blasts have struck in Rawalpindi, which is the home of Pakistan's army, at least five times in the past year, including an attack on a bus taking staff of Pakistan's main intelligence agency to work.

Benazir Bhutto, an opposition leader and former prime minister, died after a suicide bombing and shooting as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27.

A suicide bomber killed seven people near the offices of Pervez Musharraf, the president, on October 30.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the previous attacks, but authorities have blamed Taliban and tribal fighters based near the Afghan border.

PHOTO CAPTION

Pakistani policemen in Rawalpindi,

 Al-Jazeera