Suicide Bomb attack kills 16 near Pak Chief Justice addressing venue

July18: In a series of destruction and agitation, Pakistan saw another terror night as an unidentified suicide bomber entered in the crowd and exploded himself that killed at least 16 people including 3 women gathered for hearing the speech of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who was few miles before the venue. The bomb exploded on Tuesday at around 8:30 p.m., just half an hour before the schedule of Chief Justice speech.

According to the reports, the bomb exploded at a camp of the Pakistan People’s Party, almost 50 meters before from the stage, which was prepared for the chief justice to address the lawyers of the bar council. At that time the stage was much crowded, but after the explosion only fumes, blood and parts of the human body scattered on the venue. The explosion was so powerful that the glasses of many vehicles were tattered. The sound of the explosion was heard at zero point 3 miles away from the spot.

The caravan of Chief Justice returned to Supreme Court from the mid way as the security forces got the information of suicidal attack, but later he reached to the venue to make people quiet. He appealed to the crowd to have patience and courage as the rescue operation had been begun. He didn’t address the people and back soon his residence.

According to eyewitness and security officials, an unidentified motor biker entered in the crowd around at 8:30 in the night and exploded himself. His head and belt has been recovered so far, but his recognition is still unmasked. Security sources assumed that six to eight kilos of explosive material had been used in the device as the parts of suspected suicide belt have been recovered. 13 people include 3 women died on the spot while 3 among the seriously injured could not survive their injury and died in the hospital. Approximately more than 35 people were injured in that blast in which 4 among them were in critical condition so far. All the wounded were admitted in PIMS hospital, while the three body, who died later in the hospital sent to a polyclinic. All the dead body had been sent to the hospital and polyclinic for the postmortem.

It is assumed that this blast may have link to the Lal Masjid operation and the suicide bomber might be a member of opposition as PPP had supported the Lal Masjid operation.

According to Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who reached later on the spot for inspecting the situation, “Such attacks are the backlash of Lal Masjid operation because whenever any action was taken against the mosque, such incidents occurred.”

A curfew has been imposed in the Islamabad and the administration has declared red alert in the country while several other countries includes India have criticised of this suicidal attack.