80 dead in Pak blasts as Taliban seeks to avenge Laden death

Charsadda, May 14: In the first sign of things to come in Pakistan on the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden killing, two suicide bombers have killed people at a paramilitary academy here on May 13. Tehreek-e-Talban Pakistan (TTP), a homegrown arm of the Afghan Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the bombings, saying it was the first revenge for Laden's death.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, a TTP spokesman hailing from Orakzai Agency has been quoted by the Times of India as saying, "This was the first revenge for Osama's martyrdom. Wait for bigger attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan."

The blast which took place early morning on May 13 has killed 73 newly trained cadets from the Frontier Constabulary (FC) while they were exiting to board buses for a 10-day leave after completing their nine-month course in the academy.

A Senior police official has been quoted by the Times of India as saying, "Seventy three of the dead were cadets of Frontier Constabulary and the remaining were civilians. The number of civilian casualties could have been much higher, had the blasts occurred an hour or two later."

Ahmad Ali, one among the many injured has been quoted by the Times of India as saying, "I was sitting in a van waiting for my colleagues. We were in plain clothes and we were happy we were going to see our families. I heard someone shouting 'Allah hu Akbar' and then I heard a huge blast. I was hit by something in my back shoulder. In the meantime I heard another blast and I jumped out of the van. I felt that I was injured and bleeding."

Eye-witnesses said that the militants came on a motorcycle, with the first bomber striking at around 6:05am when the cadets were about to board buses to leave for the vacations. The second attack happened when other cadets and officials rushed to the scene to rescue the wounded, another bomber standing nearby ran into the middle of the rescuers and detonated his strapped explosives, killing dozens more.

OneIndia News