At least 12 personnel of Pakistan's premier spy agency were killed and 60 injured when a huge mass of explosive material ripped through the main provincial office of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in Peshawar on Friday.

A suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden truck into the gate of the ISI office within the cantonment of Peshawar city at 6.40 am, the police said.

The bomber's car was packed with about 200 kg of explosives, IGP Malik Naveed Khan told reporters. Though the well-armed guards opened fire on the car to stop it, the attacker rammed his vehicle into the three-storey building reducing it to rubble, the police said.

The blast brought down the front and middle portion of the building and its sound was so loud it could be heard up to 20 km away. Bodies lay strewn on the road and the police fired in the air to keep the onlookers away till the bodies were taken to the hospital.

Today's attack was the second strike on the Pakistan's powerful and shadowy military spy agency ISI over the past two months. The agency's office complex was earlier attacked in Lahore in which about 35 persons were killed.

The ISI office on Khyber Road that was targeted is located a short distance from an army stadium and the official residences of several dignitaries.

Witnesses said the explosion was preceded by firing.

The attack came shortly before US National Security Adviser Jim Jones began a series of meetings with military and government leaders in Islamabad.

Just an hour later, a second suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden mini truck near the main police station at Bakakhel in Bannu district of the NWFP, killing eight persons and injuring 25 others. In the second attack, three constables were among the dead while 20 security personnel were injured. The police station, located on a strategic road leading to Miranshah in North Waziristan, was destroyed and several persons were feared to be buried in the rubble, officials said.

An indefinite curfew was imposed in the area. Schools in Peshawar were closed after the attack on ISI office. Police sealed off Khyber Road, one of the city's main thoroughfares, as investigators scoured the site of the blast for clues.

No group claimed responsibility for today's attacks though officials pointed the finger of blame at the Taliban, against whom the army is currently conducting an operation in South Waziristan. — PTI 

The agitating Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) on Friday issued a weeklong ultimatum to the ruling political parties to address their demands and find an amicable solution to end the existing political stalemate. Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, said his party would intensify third phase protest programme aggressively if their demands were not addressed by November 20.

He issued the ultimatum while addressing the party leaders and cadres at the Open Theater before wrapping up their 14-day-long second-phase protest programme that includes picketing the government secretariat on Thursday and Friday to restore what they call “civilian supremacy” by correcting President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s move to retain the sacked chief of army staff Rookmangud Katawal.

“If the ruling parties try to ignore our genuine concerns and fail to address our demands by November 20, our party will launch third phase of protest programme aggressively that nobody will be able to stop the current of the people,” he said.

Earlier, thousands of Maoist leaders and cadres had picketed the government secretariat on the second consecutive day on Friday. Despite various speculations about the possibility of violent confrontation with the riot police, the Maoist leaders and cadres completed their second-day’s protest programme in extraordinarily peaceful manner.

On Thursday, many Maoist lawmakers sustained injuries when the police used force against them while they were trying to break the prohibitory orders and police barricades.

Meanwhile, most of the government ministers and senior government officials on Friday managed to reach their offices before the Maoist cadres were supposed to gather in front of the main entry points to the Singha Durbar at 8 am. The government had beefed up the security forces in different layers to safeguard the government secretariat and avoid possible untoward incident. 

The arrival of the military ruler of Myanmar, Senior General Than Shwe, in Sri Lanka on Thursday has been criticised by opposition politicians as well as some civil society groups on the ground that he has been responsible for the murder of several thousand monks in his country during the crackdown on protests last year and stifled democratic dissent.

However, the government ignored the criticism and accorded him a red carpet welcome with President Rajapaksa receiving him at the airport and then whisking him off to the central town of Kandy to worship at the most holiest Buddhist temple in the country, the one housing the tooth relic of Lord Buddha.

A leading critic of President Mahinda Rajapksa, a one time foreign minister in his own government who later left and formed his own political party, MP Mangala Samaraweera, said the government by aligning itself with rulers like General Than Shew is alienating itself from it's other international allies.

"This man is responsible for the deaths of thousands of monks and we are inviting him as a state guest," Samaraweera who now sits in the opposition beaches in Parliament said. There was also a street protest in Colombo on Friday against the visit by the Myanmar general.

President Rajapaksa has been shifting away from over dependence on western nations and seeking to consolidate the country relations with others nations and has visited Libya, Iran and Burma this year. 

Quetta, November 13
Suspected Taliban militants today torched five trucks carrying fuel from Pakistan to Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan killing a driver, the police said.

The attack took place at Bolan Pass, some 70 km south of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas-rich Balochistan province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, where both separatists and Taliban militants are active.

“A truck driver was killed and two others were wounded in the pre-dawn attack by around two dozen gunmen,” Bolan district police chief Junaid Arshad said.

“There were about 13 tankers parked at a trucking station. Gunmen set five tankers on fire before fleeing,” he added.

Asked about the attackers the police official said they could be ‘religious elements’ in an indirect reference to Taliban militants.

Hundreds of people have died since Baloch insurgents rose up in 2004 demanding autonomy and a greater share of the profits from natural resources.

A security official confirmed the incident but said nobody claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan is battling an insurgency by religiously-inspired militants, with Taliban and al-Qaida fighters holed up in the tribal region neighbouring Afghanistan, often slipping across the border to attack Western forces.

Nato and US-led forces in landlocked Afghanistan are hugely dependent on Pakistan for supplies, with about 80 per cent passing through Pakistan.

The bulk of supplies and equipment required by foreign troops is shipped through northwest Pakistan’s tribal region of Khyber, where Taliban militants have carried out a series of attacks on trucks.

— By arrangement with The Dawn