Suicide bombing kills 13 in Pakistan's Swat Valley (Roundup)

Mar 13, 2010, 7:58 GMT

Islamabad - At least 13 people were killed and 54 injured Saturday in a suicide bombing in north-western Pakistan's Swat Valley, a day after two bombings killed dozens in the city of Lahore, police said.

District police chief Qazi Ghulam Farooq said a suicide bomber was walking toward a crowded legal court when he was challenged by security guards in Mingora, the main city in the Swat district.

'The security forces opened fire at him, and the bomber detonated his explosives,' Farooq said.

Television footage showed several vehicles burning as rescue workers were putting victims into ambulances. A nearby public library and a hotel were also damaged.

Dr Mohammad Khan, an official at the public district hospital, said 13 people had died. 'Two policemen are among the dead while 54 people were injured,' he said.

Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked insurgents have intensified their attacks after a recent, brief lull. The Swat bombing was the sixth this week.

On Friday, two suicide bombers blew themselves up within seconds of each other near a convoy of military vehicles in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 48 people and injuring 95.

Militants carried out a series of low-intensity bombings in two residential areas later that night, spreading panic and fear among the city's residents.

Five explosions within two hours made police and rescue workers race through the city and caused markets to close and residents to stay home.

Taliban rebels launched a wave of lethal attacks late last year, apparently in retaliation for a military offensive in their tribal district stronghold of South Waziristan near the Afghan border.

The deadly campaign of militant strikes slowed down after a massive nationwide crackdown by police and intelligence agents, but the latest bombings raised fears that the Islamist insurgents are regrouping and regaining their ability to strike at will.

On Monday, a suicide car bombing brought down a building housing the office of a provincial anti-terrorism spy agency, killing 15 people and wounding dozens in Lahore.

Two days later, more than a dozen gunmen raided an office of the Christian aid group World Vision and killed six Pakistani employees in the northern district of Mensehra.

'The Taliban want to impose their own brand of Islam upon the country,' said Shahbaz Sharif, chief of the regional government in Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital.