Pakistan ordered a federal probe and beefed up security on Sunday after a suspected suicide bomb killed 14 people, including two top police officers — the second such attack in two days.
As investigators hunted for clues about the bombing in Peshawar, the main city in north-west Pakistan, thousands of mourners attended the funeral prayers of its slain police chief and deputy superintendent.
President Pervez Musharraf and Premier Shaukat Aziz condemned the bombing and ordered an immediate investigation, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
Akram Durrani, the chief minister of North West Frontier Province, said a joint investigation team comprising provincial and federal officials had been formed.
Meanwhile, thousands of armed police officers stood on alert in Peshawar and extra paramilitary troops were deployed around mosques to prevent further attacks, a security official said.
The blast late on Saturday targeted police who were guarding a Shi’ite Muslim procession, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said.
About 30 people were injured in the explosion near a Shi’ite mosque in the Qisakhawani bazaar.
On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the upmarket Marriott hotel in the capital Islamabad, also killing security guard trying to prevent him entering the building.
The bombings occurred as Pakistan’s minority Shi’ite community commemorates the 7th century martyrdom of the prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussain.
Investigators probing the hotel blast said on Saturday they were looking at possible links to pro-Taliban extremists fighting government forces near the Afghan border.
There was no immediate comment on suspects for the Peshawar attack.
A police inspector in Peshawar said there were reports of 14 killed in the city, including six police officers.
The two senior officers killed were identified as Peshawar’s police chief Malik Saad and deputy superintendent Raziq Khan, police said.
A senior security official said that the bombing was most likely a suicide attack, adding that the severed legs of the suspected bomber were recovered from the site.
”There is no crater in the ground and it is possible that it was a suicide attack, but we cannot say that with authority at the moment,” Sherpao said.
The investigators would probe if the blast had any link to the ongoing military operation against pro-Taliban militants in tribal area’s bordering Afghanistan, he said.
The devastating blast left blood and limbs littered over the narrow street as emergency workers picked up the mutilated bodies. — Sapa-AFP