Suicide bomber kills 3 policemen in Pakistan
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, Oct 16,IRNA -- A suspected suicide bomber detonated a car in a police station in Pakistan's restive Swat valley in a pre-dawn attack on Thursday, killing at least three policemen, officials said. The attack also injured over 20 security men in Mingora, the main city in Swat, police said.
The bomber, who also died, managed to take his explosive-laden car inside the heavily-guarded police station at around 1 a.m., when most of the security men were asleep.
Police said that the security men on duty allowed the car, thinking that it is the police armoured vehicle. But when they realized that it is not the police vehicle, they started firing on the car but the bomber exploded the vehicle in center of the station, a police officer said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack. But local Taliban are blamed for such attacks.
A Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan defended suicide attacks saying that it is a reaction to military operations in the tribal regions and Swat valley.
Senior Pakistani religious scholars on Tuesday declared suicide attacks as un-Islamic in a 'fatwa'.
Suicide attacks have killed almost 1,200 Pakistanis since July last year, most of them civilians, according to military statistics released last month that highlight the intensity of the militant threat facing the country.
"We also consider suicide attacks as un-Islamic but there should be difference between suicide and 'fidaye' attacks. We are carrying out 'Fidaye' attacks," the Taliban spokesman said.
The Thursday's attack destroyed 6 rooms at the police station and caused damage to the nearby markets and houses, witnesses said.
The injured were taken to main hospital in Saidu Sharif, center of Swat valley. Three critical injured were shifted to Peshawar, police said.
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