Suicide Attack at Pakistani Court Compound Kills Over a Dozen
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Sixteen people were killed Monday morning, including two police officers, when a bomber detonated his suicide vest after shooting his way into a court compound about 20 miles north of Peshawar, a senior police official said.
The bomber forced his way through the main entrance of the subdistrict court in the town of Shabqadar around 11:30 a.m., the police said. Once inside, he shot an officer who tried to stop him for a search and then set off his suicide vest when another constable tackled him to prevent him from entering the more crowded family court.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, an offshoot of the militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, took responsibility for the attack. In an email, its spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said the bombing was retaliation for the hanging of Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a former security guard who shot and killed the governor of Punjab Province, Salman Taseer, in 2001. Mr. Qadri was sentenced to death by the court and hanged on Feb. 29.
“We would have had more casualties had the bomber proceeded towards the family court,” the deputy inspector general of police, Saeed Wazir, said in a telephone interview. “Mondays are reserved for court hearings of family disputes, so there were more people there.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/world/asia/pakistan-suicide-bomber.html?_r=0
