Peshawar, April 5
Taliban militants, dressed in battle fatigues, today made a brazen attempt to storm the US consulate in this northwest Pakistani city under a hail of gunfire and explosions as a suicide bomber unleashed carnage at a political rally near here killing 44 persons.
Six heavily-armed attackers came in two cars and raked two security checkposts of the consulate with gunfire as a series of explosions rocked the cantonment area where the premises is located before they were gunned down by the security forces.
“The target was certainly the American consulate but they didn't succeed in getting there,” a police official said as senior provincial minister Bashir Bilour said the “militants were well-equipped and it was a well-organised attack”. One policeman was killed and another injured in the gunfight, he said.
Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack with its spokesman Azam Tariq saying “3,000 fidayeen were ready to target the Americans”. It was one of the bloodiest day in the province, where government forces are pressing an offensive to force Taliban fighters out of their strongholds in Aurakzai and South Waziristan.
Hours earlier, a suicide bomber struck a political gathering of NWFP's ruling Awami National Party to celebrate the renaming of the Pushtun dominated province as Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa. At least 43 persons were killed and 100 others injured in the attack at Timergara in lower Dir district. Deputy Inspector General of Police (Malakand division) Qazi Jamilur Rahman and senior ANP leader Zahid Khan confirmed it was a suicide attack. Sultan Zeb, a middle rung ANP leader, was among the dead and party leader Zahid Khan's brother was injured.
