57 Dead After Explosions Outside Pakistan Arms Factory
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Islamabad, Pakistan — Two suicide bombers have killed 57 people in Pakistan as part of an escalating campaign of violence.
A further 70 people were wounded in the explosion outside Pakistan’s main arms factory, one of the country’s most sensitive military installations.
Yesterday’s blasts were a further blow to the country’s stability after Pervez Musharraf resigned as president on Monday, leaving the pursuit of the American-led “war on terror” to a bickering coalition government.
Two days ago another suicide bomber blew himself up at a hospital in the north-west town of Dera Ismail Khan, killing 60 people.
The new wave of violence mirrors a similar spate last year when the army and police were targeted during a campaign of suicide bombings that culminated in the assassination of Prime Minister Bhutto. The bombers detonated the explosives simultaneously outside two gates of the factory complex in the northern town of Wah, near the capital, Islamabad.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it was a revenge attack for Pakistan military operations.
“It’s a massive attack,” the local police chief, Nasir Durrani, said. “Two men apparently blew themselves up outside the factory during a shift change. The bombers were on foot and they exploded themselves less than a minute apart.”
The Pakistani Ordnance Factories at Wah is a cluster of about 20 industrial units producing artillery, tank and anti-aircraft ammunition for Pakistan’s armed forces.
The complex employs about 25,000 to 30,000 people and sits on the main road leading from the tribal areas and the troubled North West Frontier Province.
It also adjoins the historic city of Taxila where thousands of tourists visit ancient Buddhist ruins every year.
Pakistani security forces are involved in an escalating battle with pro-Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in tribal regions along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Pakistani Taliban militants have said in recent days that they would launch attacks on the military in revenge for the continuing army operation in the tribal region of Bajaur on the Afghan border.
