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Pakistan
Violence in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province
Article published on the 2008-08-19 Latest update 2008-08-19 11:43 TU
Map of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province
map: Pahari Sahib/Wikimedia
In Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, at least 23 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a hospital. The bomber detonated himself in the emergency ward of a hospital says the Provincial Police. Meanwhile, local officials say fighting erupted near Khar in the Bajaur tribal district with casualties on both sides.
A suicide bomber blew himself up on Tuesday at a hospital in the northwestern Pakistani town, Dera Ismail Khan. Police say that at least 23 people have been killed, and as many as 20 wounded.
The attack came as Shiite Muslims gathered to protest over the death of a man in a suspected sectarian attack in the town, said North West Frontier Province police chief Malik Naveed Khan.
Provincial police spokesman Riaz Ahmed said the dead included civilians and policemen who went to the hospital to provide security for the protest.
Meanwhile fighting erupted Tuesday in Nawagai, 25 kilometers west of Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal district on the Afghan border. An official said that about 13 militants are confirmed dead in clashes which lasted for several hours. The official added that five soldiers were killed at a checkpost, and that army helicopter gunships later pounded the area, destroying the house of the main spokesman for Pakistan's Taliban movement, Maulvi Omar, but the compound was empty and no one was killed. Pakistani forces moved into Bajaur, a known hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, nearly two weeks ago. Pakistan has been under intense pressure from the United States to clamp down on militants based near the border.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are supposed to be key allies in the US-led "war on terror but Kabul recently accused Pakistan's intelligence service of masterminding the July bombing of the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital, in which around 60 people were killed. Pakistan denied the accusations, which were also made by India.
