Police searched for clues yesterday after a suicide attack at a police officer's funeral killed more than 40 people in volatile northwestern Pakistan, where troops are fighting pro-Taliban militants.
Another suicide bombing yesterday killed one person and wounded 19 in the region, officials said.
More than 60 people were also hurt on Friday night when a bomber blew himself up as some 800 mourners gathered for the funeral of Javed Iqbal, a senior police officer who was killed in a roadside bombing earlier in the day.
Iqbal's 16-year-old son, Ghazan, was among the dead.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Syed Akhtar Ali Shah said an investigation had started.
He said although no one has claimed responsibility, police were confident of arresting those who orchestrated the suicide attack in Mingora, about 170km from Peshawar in the Swat Valley.
District police chief Arshad Majid said 40 bodies were accounted for, but the toll was expected to rise after forensic officials reconstructed body parts.
The suicide bombing was the bloodiest attack in the Swat Valley since militant followers of a pro-Taliban cleric grabbed control of large parts of the scenic corner of Pakistan's restive northwest. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf -- an ally of Washington in its "war on terror" -- sent thousands of troops to Swat in November, but the attacks have persisted.
Yesterday, a suicide bomber struck a vehicle carrying security forces in the northwestern tribal region of Bajur, killing one civilian and wounding 19 people, mostly security personnel, said Iqbal Khatak, a government official.
He said the severed head of the attacker, who was on foot, was found at the scene. All the victims were taken to a hospital where three of them were in critical condition, he said.
Friday's suicide attack was the most serious since the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections in which the Musharraf-allied Muslim League Party was soundly defeated, plunging his political future into uncertainty.
Shahbuddin, an assistant inspector of police, said the explosion occurred just as pallbearers -- including Iqbal's teenage son -- lifted the coffin to carry it toward the grave. Many police officers were at the funeral.
Meanwhile, Pakistani police yesterday formally accused the top Taliban leader in the country and four others of planning the assassination of late opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Preliminary charges were filed in court against Baitullah Mehsud, who has been named by the Pakistani government in the Dec. 27 killing of Bhutto in a suicide and gun-attack during a public rally. Mehsud is underground and it is not clear if the police are anywhere close to catching him.
"Police submitted preliminary charges in the Bhutto case before an anti-terrorism court and the judge issued non-bailable warrants of arrest against Baitullah Mehsud and four other accused," said Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, the chief investigator.
Although Mehsud was named by President Pervez Musharraf within days of the assassination, the filing of the preliminary charges is the first legal step before an arrest can be made.
Mehsud is the commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban, an umbrella group of Islamic militant groups linked to al-Qaeda.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats