Death toll of NW Pakistan court blast rises to 16

Death toll of the suicide blast in Pakistan's northwest Charsadda district has risen to 16, police said.

Sohail Khalid, the District Police Officer (D.P.O), said that 22 people were also injured in the blast which was carried out by a suicide bomber.

Saeed Wazir, the Deputy Inspector General police, said that the suicide bomber opened fire at the policemen who intercepted him at the entrance gate of the court and later blew himself up upon being cornered by a cop who was also killed in the explosion.

He said that a total of 18 policemen were deployed on the security of the court and two out of them were killed while six others including a lady constable injured.

He said that about 200 to 250 people were inside the court when the incident happened and if the bomber succeeded in sneaking inside it the number of causalities might have been very high.

Wazir said that the explosion happened when routine procedures were going on in the session court of the Shabqadar town of Charsadda, a district located in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

President of the Session Court bar said that the injured people also included lawyers.

Five ambulances took part in shifting the injured people to Shabqadar hospital from where over 20 wounded victims, including the cops and two kids were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar city adjacent to the district.

Doctor Hassan, the Medical Superintendent at Shabqadar hospital said that they have received 12 bodies while the Lady Reading Hospital has four bodies of the blast victims in their mortuary.

The D.P.O said that the bomber was a teenager between the age 14 to 16 and his body parts have been sent to lab for investigation.

Several nearby shops and four vehicles were destroyed in the blast which rocked the district at about 11:20 a.m. (local time).

Police and paramilitary troops cordoned off the area for investigations.

Security was beefed up in Shabqadar following the attack and all the entry and exit routes of the town were blocked by the police.

A splinter group of Pakistan Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jammat-ul-Ahrar group, claimed responsibility for the blast.

"We have carried out the attack that was aimed at the session court. We have not killed civilians. The court and judges were our target as their practices are un-Islamic," the group's spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told local media.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the blast and said that the nation is united in its commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from its soil.

"The premier has extended his heartfelt condolences to the victims' families and prayed to Allah Almighty for grant of courage to them for bearing the irreparable losses," the PM office said in a statement. Enditem

Source: Xinhua