Islamabad: At least 14 people were killed and more than 30, including lawyers and policemen, injured after two back-to-back powerful explosions hit district court in Pakistan’s Mardan district on Friday.
The bomber made his way through the main gate leading to the district court, before throwing a hand grenade then detonating his suicide vest among the morning crowd, officials said.
Army soldiers and policemen cordoned off the area while Rescue 1122 teams moved the injured persons to District Headquarter Hospital and Mardan Medical Complex.
The dead included at least two policemen as well as lawyers and clerks. The bomber had up to eight kilograms of explosives packed into his vest.
This was second attack on Pakistan’s legal community within a month. In August, a blast at a hospital in southern Balochistan province capital Quetta killed more than 70 people, nearly wiping out the city’s senior lawyers.
Earlier, four suicide bombers were killed in ‘prompt response’ by the security forces in Peshawar’s Christian Colony near Warsak Road. Soldiers backed by army helicopters exchanged gunfire with terrorists in suicide vests who had tried to attack the colony near Warsak Dam, just north of Peshawar.
