Pakistan bomb attack kills dozens

25/12/2010| IslamWeb

At least 42 people have been killed and some 70 others injured after a suspected bomber attacked a crowd of people receiving food aid in northwest Pakistan.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that the incident took place on Saturday morning at a World Food Programme (WFP) distribution centre in the town of Khair, in Bajaur agency.

"A lone suicide bomber penetrated into the crowd and then detonated his device and according to reports from the area there are high casualties."

Fazal-e-Rabbi, a local police official, said that the bomber, dressed in a traditional women's cloth, first lobbed two hand grenades into the crowd.

Rabbi said that the attacker, believed to be a woman, then detonated an explosive vest.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for this attack.

Our correspondent said that Bajaur is not equipped to deal with such incidents even in the best of times and hospitals are struggling to cope.

'Blast at checkpoint'

Amjad Jamal, spokesman for the WFP in Pakistan, told Al Jazeera that none of the UN agency's staff were injured in this attack.

"The suicide attack was not within the distribution site; it was at a security checkpoint some 250 to 300 meters away from our site," Jamal said.

"People were coming to get their food rations from the WFP site. Once they get themselves screened, then they come to the site, so there was a big number of people waiting in that area.

"For the time being this particular point will be closed because the security authorities have cordoned off the area, but all other WFP operations within the country remain open and our relief operations will continue."

"We went there to get food items which were being distributed, suddenly a woman came and the blast occurred," Noor Ullah, one of the wounded, told Al Jazeera. "When I regained consciousness, I was covered in blood and was in a canal. After that, soldiers took us to the hospital."

Officials and witnesses said the death toll could be much higher.

PHOTO CAPTION

Pakistan army paramedic unload an injured victim of suicide bombing, from a van upon his arrival at Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010.

Al-Jazeera