30 people die in bombing in northwestern Pakistan

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Two successive suicide bombings killed 30 people in a camp providing aid to displaced people in northwestern Pakistan, police officials stated. The two explosions hit the Kacha Pukha camp located near the city of Kohat. Nearly 50 people were wounded.

Al Jazeera‘s Kamal Hyder said from Islamabad that the bomber hit the camp when a food distribution programme was underway. “This was a point where registration was under way and food distribution was under way,” he said. “Most of the victims were the displaced people from the Orakzai agency where the military has launched an offensive recently, displacing a large number of people. The attack is said to have involved a suicide bomber and perhaps a remote-controlled device planted near that particular area,” he added.

“At least 27 people have died. There are 45 wounded. The toll may go up,” regional police chief Dilawar Khan Bangash told the Agence France-Presse news agency from the scene of the incident. “Both were suicide attacks. Body parts of the suicide bombers have been recovered. The blasts took place at the relief distribution point for internally displaced people.” Officials later confirmed that the death toll was 30.

It is not immediately clear who was responsible for the bombing.