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Car bomb kills 17 people in Darra Adam Khel
 [Dawn] A car boom tore through a crowded bazaar outside an office for anti-Taliban tribal elders Saturday in Darra Adam Khel-- a town located between Kohat and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. -- killing at least 17 people, officials said. The blast was the latest to strike the troubled area near the Afghan border, showing bully boyz still pose a threat to the stability of key US ally Pakistain despite government offensives against the Taliban and their supporters. No group immediately grabbed credit, but the Pak Taliban have staged similar attacks in the tribal region of Darra Adam Khel to punish elders for backing security forces in offensives against bad turbans. The explosives-laden car was parked near the office of one of anti-Taliban peace committees that have been formed by local elders trying to rid the area of bad turbans, regional government administrator Fakhruddin Khan said. It was unclear how many people were in the office at the time, but Khan said those killed included tribal elders and passers-by. He said 40 people also were maimed and the attack destroyed 35 shops and eight vehicles. The dead and maimed, including some at death's door, had been transported to hospitals in Peshawar. The region, which is in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province, is famous for its weapons market selling guns made by local craftsmen. Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain blamed the Pak Taliban, noting the fundamentalist Islamic movement also had tried to kill a 14-year-old girl who is an advocate of education for girls and a critic of the Taliban. Malala Yousufzai was shot and maimed by a Taliban gunman in the Swat  ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...Valley on Tuesday. The attack has drawn widespread condemnation. Hussain urged the federal government to consider launching a "decisive operation against terrorists" to eliminate the bad turbans. "These Taliban have killed our innocent people in so many attacks. They are still killing our people. Instead of wasting time, we should hit them back, and we should do it as early as possible to save the precious lives of our innocent girls like Malala Yousufzai," he told news hounds in Peshawar. Posted by: Fred 2012-10-14 |
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