Police centre attacked in Islamabad

09/10/2008| IslamWeb

A large explosion has injured several people and badly damaged barracks at the police headquarters in the Pakistani capital.

 

Police said that initial reports of fatalities were incorrect, but that at least seven people had been wounded in Thursday's blast in Islamabad.

 

Police believe the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber in a car who was pretending to deliver sweets to members of the anti-terrorism unit.

 

The attack comes less than three weeks after more than 50 people were killed when a bomber detonated a lorry full of explosives at the Marriott hotel in the city.

 

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from the scene, described the attack as "audacious" and "well-planned".

 

"This is a highly secure area controlled by the police forces," Hyder said.

 

"We are getting reports that a vehicle carrying boxes of sweets drove into a highly secure area and was able to drive into the anti-terrorist compound, which is where the driver was told to wait outside while the person who brought his sweets went into the building," he said.

 

"We were told that the driver was not aware of what was being carried in his vehicle, so there is still some confusion as to whether this was a suicide attack or whether the person who had the trigger was able to make an escape after the blast.

 

 

 

"The only good news is that the number of security men deployed in the area during the time of the blast was minimal... The attack was so powerful that it tore off a big chunk of that building."

 

The attack came as parliament entered into a closed-door question and answer session after a sensitive briefing by the country's military chiefs.

 

On Wednesday, Pakistan's freshly appointed intelligence chief addressed politicians on the domestic threat posed by al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal regions, in another closed-door session.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

A policeman prevents entry to the site of the blast

 

Al-Jazeera