A bomb-laden car exploded in north-western Pakistan today as police were trying to pull a body from the vehicle, killing seven policemen and a passer-by.
It appeared to be the first time militants in Pakistan had targeted security forces by using a body as a lure, and it underscored the challenge facing Pakistan as it tries to root out al Qaida, Taliban and other insurgents based along its border with Afghanistan.
The explosion comes less than a week after gunmen attacked Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore and amid rising political turbulence from a court decision to bar an opposition leader from office.
The turmoil in the nuclear-armed country is of concern to US and the West, who need Pakistan to focus on combatingmilitants involved in the fight in Afghanistan.
The explosion occurred in the Badaber area, a small town on the outskirts of the main north-west city of Peshawar, where residents recently evicted a group of militants with help from the police. The move prompted militant threats of retaliation.
Initially, senior police official Safwat Ghayur said a suicide car bomber detonated the vehicle when officers at a roadblock motioned it to stop near the Khyber tribal region, a part of Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt where military forces have staged offensives to stem militant activity.
But officials at the scene said further investigation showed the police were led to a trap.
An area police chief, Rahim Shah, said officers were sent to Badaber after an anonymous caller alerted them to the presence of a body in a car parked not far from a farm field.
“Police went there. They found the white car. They also saw a body inside, but when they were pulling it out, the car bomb went off,” he said, calling it a “new technique”.
Pakistan recently claimed victory in an offensive against militants in Bajur, a nearby tribal region where the military and insurgents have been battling since August. Officials also say they are close to flushing out militants in nearby Mohmand tribal area.
But while the US has praised those offensives, saying they have helped reduce violence in neighbouring Afghanistan, Pakistan has raised alarm bells in the West by engaging in peace talks with Taliban militants not far away in the northwest’s Swat Valley.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged Pakistani politicians yesterday to stop feuding and unite to focus on the “mortal threat” the country faced from Islamist militants.
Today's bomb follows the attack on the cricketers, in which gunmen killed six police and a driver and wounded seven players.
He said it was “vital” that President Asif Ali Zardari and Mr Sharif “unite against the mortal threat that Pakistan faces, which is a threat from its internal enemies”.
AP