By Tariq Naqash in the Dawn, June 27
MUZAFFARABAD, June 26: Two soldiers were killed and at least three others injured in a suicide bombing here on Friday.
The banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the first suicide attack in Azad Kashmir.
The early morning blast in army barracks in Shaukat Lines caught security personnel unawares, although “they had been on alert for four months”, a police official said.
According to witnesses, a bearded man in his twenties walked through a ground used by army personnel for physical training and local youths as a playground and entered the barracks of non-commissioned army men at about 6.30am.
“The bomber was intercepted by a soldier whom he tried to engage in a conversation presumably to attract other soldiers around for causing maximum casualties” and then blew himself up, official sources said.
A soldier was killed on the spot and four others were injured and taken to the Combined Military Hospital where one of them died.
An army pick-up parked a few yards away overturned and another vehicle was damaged. The blast was heard in most parts of the town.
An intelligence official said the ground was splattered with blood and limbs. He said four legs and other limbs had been found in the ground and under the overturned vehicle which indicated that more than one bomber might have been involved in the attack.
Inspector General of Police Javed Iqbal and other senior officers reached the place shortly after the blast and discussed matters related to investigation with military officers who were later joined by the Murree-based general officer commanding of the 12-Division.
The junior section of the Army Public School, several other educational institutions and the 5-AK Brigade headquarters are around the place where the blast took place. Several parents were heard voicing concern about the security of their children in the area.
AJK Social Welfare Minister Noreen Arif said: “We ought to devise a comprehensive plan to ensure security of our people and combat terrorism.”
A police officer said the army installation had probably been attacked to give a message to the authorities that militants could expand their area of operation and hit security forces anywhere, including Azad Kashmir.
The barracks fall under the 5-AK Brigade of the Azad Kashmir (AK) Regiment which is reportedly taking part in the operation against militants in Swat and adjoining areas.
In a late-night crackdown in various parts of the AJK capital, police arrested more than five dozen Afghan nationals and people belonging to the Frontier province who lacked identification documents.
Agencies add: A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud, said the attack had been launched to prove that he had not been weakened by recent strikes on his suspected hideouts.
The ISPR confirmed that two soldiers had died and three others had been injured in the suicide attack on an army vehicle. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/two-soldiers-killed-baitullahs-suicide-foray-into-ajk-769
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