/ 31 October 2007

Bomber rams Pakistan military bus, kills eight

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed a Pakistan Air Force bus -- killing at least eight people and wounding 40 -- near the central city of Sargodha on Thursday, the military said. The security situation in Pakistan has deteriorated sharply in the past few months at a time of political uncertainty.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) bus killing at least eight people and wounding 40 near the central city of Sargodha on Thursday, the military said.

The security situation in Pakistan has deteriorated sharply in the past few months at a time of political uncertainty. An election is due by January that is meant to mark a transition to civilian-led democracy.

The bus was taking personnel to the air base in Sargodha in the central province of Punjab.

”Eight people have been killed including four officers,” military spokesperson Major-General Waheed Arshad said, adding civilians were among those killed. An air force spokesperson said 40 people were wounded.

There is speculation that President Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in a coup eight years ago, could ditch plans for the election, and impose emergency powers or martial law.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the next few days on whether General Musharraf’s re-election by Parliament on October 6 was legitimate. Rivals have challenged his right to have stood while still army chief.

Musharraf has said he will quit the army if he gets a second five-year term, and has allowed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to return from self-imposed exile without fear of prosecution from a raft of old graft charges against her.

Pakistan has seen a surge in violence by militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda since the army stormed a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad, in July.

On Tuesday, seven people were killed in a suicide attack less than a kilometre from Musharraf’s army residence in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, neighbouring Islamabad.

A suicide bomb attack killed 139 people at a rally in the city of Karachi on October 19 to mark the return of Bhutto after eight years of self-imposed exile. – Reuters