Following the killing of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden on May 2nd in a covert operation by the US Special Forces in Abbottabad, Taliban has struck back with twin bombings on the Frontier Corps Headquarters in Shabqadar, Charsada, NWFP Pakistan on Friday.
Reportedly Taliban has claimed the responsibility of this deadliest attack this year so far with death toll is expected to rise as the authorities have shifted 40 seriously injured to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, the leader of Taliban, quoted by the local press saying that ‘wait for more such attacks on the soils of Pakistan and Afghanistan’ in retaliation of Osama’s martyrdom.
“The explosions detonated in the Shabqadar Tehsil of Charsadda, as newly trained FC cadets were getting into buses and coaches for a 10-day leave after a training course,” police said.
“The suicide bomber came on a motorcycle and blew himself up among the FC personnel. The bomb disposal squad told me the second bomb was planted,” said the police chief of the Charsadda district, Nisar Khan Marwat.
Shabqadar is about 30 kilometers north of Peshawar, the main city in the northwest region where militants linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda have repeatedly attacked government forces.
Police officials confirmed that more than 80 people had been killed, making it the deadliest attack in Pakistan since November 5 when a suicide bomber killed 68 people at a mosque in the northwest area of Darra Adam Khel.
He said that around 20 shops and 12 vehicles were destroyed in the intensity of the blasts and put the death toll at more than 80.
“Most of those killed are FC cadets. Five dead bodies of civilians were taken to the Shabqadar hospital,” he added.
The life in Charsada’s Shabqadar area came to complete halt as the shopping areas were closed down as mark of protest against this gruesome attack targeting the FC personnel as well as civilians.
The attack came as the top brass of Pakistan Military is due to brief the Parliamentarians in camera session around 4pm local time in federal capital Islamabad.
The Director General ISI Ahmed Shuja Pasha will brief the joint session of the legislators on the events of the May 2nd and how the Pakistan’s closest ally US had breached the sovereignty of the country by using the unguarded borders with Afghanistan.
Since the US covert operation, the PPP Government led by Prime Minister Yousif Reza Gillani has failed to convince the parliamentarians about the events which led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The joint parliament in camera session, the fourth one in the history of the country, will help in controlling the damage to the US-Pakistan relation and the pacifying the situation politically where the fragile coalition in the center has been facing intense criticism since then.
Despite getting support of 18 PML (Q) members in the federal cabinet in addition to the MQM three new faces, the PML (N) the largest opposition party in the center has intensified its criticism on the government’s failure to handle the Osama affairs.
The opposition parties including Tehrik-i-Insaf led by Imran Khan are demanded resignations from the President Asif Ali Zardari and the Prime Minister Yousif Reza Gillani and answer the people of Pakistan for unprecedented attacks on the Pakistani soil by the US.
Pakistanis have been outraged at the perceived impunity of the US raid, while asking whether their military was too incompetent to know bin Laden was living close to a major forces academy, or, worse, conspired to protect him.