PAKISTAN:AT LEAST 60 people were killed yesterday by a twin suicide bombing at a military ordnance factory close to Islamabad. This latest attack is part of an upsurge in violence that comes as the Pakistani government teeters on the brink of collapse.
Two bombers blew themselves up at different gates of the factory in Wah, about 20 miles from the capital, just as hundreds of workers were passing through for the afternoon change of shifts.
It was one of the deadliest bombings in Pakistan since militants began a campaign of violence a year ago.
"There were bodies lying everywhere and wounded people soaked in blood were screaming for help," said the manager of a nearby petrol station, who gave his name only as Shah.
Unofficial reports say at least 64 people were killed and 100 injured.
Earlier this week, a bombing of a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, in the northwest, killed 32. Pakistan's Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the bombings.
The munitions plant in Wah is the biggest ordnance manufacturing facility in Pakistan. Heavily guarded by the army, the Wah complex is one of the most protected places in Pakistan.
"This is an intensification ," said Talat Masood, a retired general who once headed the factory. "They're trying to blackmail the government."
Pakistani security forces are fighting militants in Bajaur, part of the tribal border area with Afghanistan, and in Swat, a valley in the northwest.
An inter-clan conflict has also erupted in Kurram, another part of the tribal territory, in which some 350 locals have died in the last two weeks.
The Taliban said the factory attack was revenge for the offensives in Bajaur and Swat - where hundreds of insurgents have been killed - warning that the bombings would continue until the Pakistani army withdrew from those areas.
"Only innocent people die when the Pakistan army carries out air strikes in Bajaur or Swat," said a Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Omar.
"If the army is really fond of fighting, it should send ground forces to see how we fight."
Militants appear to be exploiting the political vacuum in Pakistan. Elections in February brought to power a coalition government that has never been able to gel.
The government was able to come together briefly to oust Pervez Musharraf as president on Monday. But since then, the coalition parties have become deadlocked once again.
Reacting to the factory attack, a spokesman for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), said: "This is just barbaric. We have to devise a policy which is national, which protects and serves our own interests."
While the other main party in the coalition, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), has described the country's anti-terror fight as "our war", Mr Sharif's party (PML-N) and most other political groupings in Pakistan regard it as "America's war" and have called for a non-violent solution.
While the coalition parties are at odds on how to tackle the extremist challenge, there is no political consensus over the issue of the judiciary.
Today that may result in the collapse of the coalition government, as the self-imposed deadline passes for reaching an agreement on the reinstatement of the judges sacked by Mr Musharraf in November.
PML-N wants all the judges brought back, while the PPP is reluctant to reinstate deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, an activist judge who had held the executive to account. Mr Sharif is threatening to walk out.
There is also a rising expectation that the next president will be Asif Ali Zardari, the highly controversial figure who became leader of the PPP after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto.
As the PPP is the biggest player in the coalition, the presidency is in the gift of the party.