http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=120895&d=28&m=3&y=2009
Saturday 28 March 2009 (01 Rabi` al-Thani 1430)
37 worshippers die in bombing
Agencies
PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of
worshippers attending Friday prayers near the Afghan border, killing at least
37 people and injuring scores more, in the bloodiest attack in Pakistan this
year.
The bomber struck at the end of the sermon just as the imam started the
prayer, witnesses said. "As the prayer leader began the prayer, the bomb went
off with a big bang," said Nadir Shah, a local paramilitary soldier who was
among the worshippers. "I felt it was the end of everything. Sometime later
when I opened my eyes, I was lying among dead bodies."
The blast in the Khyber Pass came hours before President Barack Obama
unveiled a revised strategy to "disrupt, defeat and dismantle" the Al-Qaeda
terrorist organization and the Taleban operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan's
northwest.
A government official accused militants of carrying out the bombing in
revenge for a recent offensive aimed in part at protecting the major supply
route for NATO and US troops in Afghanistan that passes in front of the mosque.
Several of the dead were local security officers who were praying there,
officials said.
"Residents of this area had cooperated and helped us a lot. These
infidels had warned that they will take revenge," said Tariq Hayat, the top
administrator of the Khyber tribal region. "They are the enemy of Pakistan.
They are the enemy of Islam."
The bomber targeted the mosque when about 250 people were attending the
Friday prayers, said Hayat. Rahat Gul, a spokesman for the Khyber
administration, had earlier said 50 people had been killed and 75 wounded, but
Hayat later revised the death toll to 37. Among the dead were 14 policemen and
paramilitary soldiers while 160 were wounded.
Residents and police officers dug frantically with their hands through
the ruins of the white-walled mosque, whose roof collapsed in the explosion.
Rescuers hauled bodies covered in dust and blood in blankets and bed sheets to
ambulances and private cars waiting to take them to hospital
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
