Two suicide bombers killed at least 24 people near Pakistan’s military headquarters Tuesday morning, an especially brazen attack that added to the country’s turmoil as it prepares for upcoming elections.
The bombs, which injured 66, underscore how unstable Pakistan has become in recent months. Suicide attacks happen often in tribal areas but they are now increasingly common in the capital, Islamabad, and in neighboring Rawalpindi.
“We’re not safe in front of general headquarters?” asked Ibrar Hussain, who helped carry the dead and injured from one blast to a nearby hospital. “Then where exactly are we safe?”
The blasts raised concerns that the government might declare a state of emergency or martial law, but officials dismissed that possibility. President Pervez Musharraf is facing the biggest threat to his rule since seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1999; aides said last month that he had considered declaring an emergency, which would have postponed elections for at least a year.
The initial investigation showed both blasts were suicide bombs, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the country’s military spokesman.
Most of the victims were killed in an explosion on a Ministry of Defense bus carrying employees to work about 7:20 a.m. A suicide bomber likely boarded the bus and then blew himself up, Arshad said. The others died when the second attacker exploded his bomb near a market that sells cigarettes to soldiers in the morning.
Most victims were army employees, witnesses said, although Arshad said the victims were a mix.
Musharraf, who also is Pakistan’s army chief, condemned the attacks in a statement.
No one claimed responsibility for the nearly simultaneous explosions, which happened about 2 miles from each other near the headquarters of Pakistan’s powerful military and also the homes of military leaders such as Musharraf.
But past attacks have been tied to Islamic militants, now fighting a renewed battle against the army in the country’s remote tribal areas, near the Afghan border. These militants, linked to Al Qaeda, also have been accused of attacking NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has suffered a rash of violence since July, when the military raided a militants’ mosque in Islamabad. Truces later broke down with militants in Waziristan, one of the tribal areas that has long been a hotbed for militants. Most of the violence has been in the tribal areas, but there were two suicide bombs in Islamabad in July. Militants also kidnapped more than 100 soldiers in the tribal areas last week.
Some officials and former generals blamed Musharraf and the government for provoking the attacks by continuing to support the U.S. in its war on terror. Musharraf has been an ally in the war, risking the alienation of many Pakistanis.
“We’ve gone and waged a war against our own people,” said Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani, the former head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency. “We have been so silly and so foolish.”
Religious Affairs Minister Muhammad Ijaz Ul Haq told Dawn News TV that the bombs could be a reaction to the war in Afghanistan and to Pakistani operations in the tribal areas, especially in Waziristan.
“We are the frontline state in the war against terror, and we are suffering the most,” Haq said.
Witnesses near the bus bombing said the green military bus stopped for passengers at a bend in a road every morning, just after 7 a.m. The bus exploded just as Chaudhry Irfan Mehdi was passing it as he drove his two children to school.
“My windshield collapsed and my kids screamed loudly,” Mehdi said. “I was stunned. So many people were screaming around us. Some were jumping from the bus. Others were pushing out the injured.”
The roof of the bus was blown off, landing in the street.
There were fewer details available on the other blast, which apparently killed or injured most of the people on the street at the time. Hours later, a girl in her blue-and-white school uniform had to be held up as she stumbled along, sobbing, “My father, my father.” He had died in the blast, neighbors said.
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