Troubled South-Asian country Pakistan has suffered yet another bombing attack on October 12, 2012. This time a car bomb has killed at least 16 people and wounded 30 others in a market in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of North-Western Pakistan. It is presumed that the target of the attacks could have been members of a pro-government organization created to fight Taliban militia, according to some officials.
According to local government official Fakhar-ud-Din, it could not be easily ascertained as to how many pro-government militia were killed or wounded as a majority of the casualties were shoppers. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, who is the Information minister for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province mentioned that it was a suicide attack that was targeting the local peace committee.
The blast had occurred outside the office of the local ‘peace committee’, which comprises of militia who used to fight with the Taliban, but are now fighting for local elders and the government. Local medical facilities were overburdened with the sudden surge of wounded people and many had to be taken to nearby towns and even Peshawar, which is half-an-hour away towards the North.
The Pakistani military has tried in vain for many years to wipe-out the Taliban from their strongholds along the Afghanistan border, this has led to the government trying to encourage the militia themselves to take on the Taliban. This has had limited success.
The bombing comes on the back of the shooting of 14-year-old schoolgirl rights activist Malala Yousafzai in Swat on Tuesday.
