Over 137 people killed in past few weeks. Exodus from South Waziristan begins, the army's final offensive against the Taliban.

Lahore (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The provisional death toll is of at least 28, from a series of coordinated attacks by Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan. Three different police centres - including the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) -  were targeted in Lahore and a police barracks in the city of Kohat, near Peshawar.

Kamran Ahmad, a police official in Lahore, confirmed to AFP that "several armed groups have attacked two training centres in Lahore." To these are added an attack on the offices of the FIA, also in Lahore, where a gang of four or five people tried to penetrate the building.  

Mohammad Yasin, a law enforcement official, reports that "two or three of the assailants were killed," but another group was able to "enter the building, where FIA officials and other employees were at work." At the moment the toll is about 18 victims, two of them are part of the armed commando.

In the northwestern town of Kohat, near Peshawar, a "suicide attack" targeted  a local police station. Dilawar Bangash, district chief, said that "the bomber directed the vehicle, laden with explosives, against the outer walls of the building". Rescuers are still engaged helping the wounded, the confirmed victims are 10, among which there are also children.  

At least 137 people have been killed in the last 11 days in Pakistan. A wave of violence that has hit Islamabad, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and that seems to be related to the announcement of an army offensive against the Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan, in the north-west of the country.

The local population has fled their homes to escape the increasingly likely war, according to preliminary estimates more than 90 thousand people have left their home villages of the province, on board crowded buses and in private cars.

 

 

• pakistan
• attack
• police
• army
• offensive
• taliban
• south
• warziristan
• lahore