Pakistan bombings death toll reaches 39

A Pakistani man who was injured in a bomb blast in Nowshera lies in a hospital's bed waiting to be treated in Peshawar on Sunday. (Mohammad Zubair/ Associated Press)

TWO explosions went off minutes apart in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar yesterday, killing 39 people and injuring nearly 100 in one of the deadliest attacks since the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month, officials said.

The blasts, one of which was caused by a suicide bomber, occurred just after midnight in an area that is home to political offices and army housing.
The attack took place as CIA director Leon Panetta and Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Islamabad, 150km to the east, to speak separately with senior Pakistani officials about intelligence sharing and efforts to reconcile with the Taliban. The first explosion was relatively small and drew police and rescue workers to the site, said Dost Mohammed, a senior local police official. A large explosion rocked the area a few minutes later, causing the fatalities and injuring 98 people, 18 critically, said Rahim Jan, a senior doctor at a local hospital.

The second blast was caused by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle packed with 10kg of explosives, said Ejaz Khan, a senior police official.
The source of the first explosion was unknown.
Pakistan's Taliban denied responsibility for the bombing despite an earlier pledge to carry out attacks in retaliation for the covert US Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden in an army town outside Islamabad on May 2.
The attack took place across the street from the offices of the top political agent to Khyber, part of Pakistan's volatile tribal region, and only about 100m from army housing units. Peshawar borders the tribal region and has been repeatedly hit by bombings over the past few years.
The attack followed a second day of meetings between Mr Panetta, the CIA chief and senior Pakistani officials.
The talks were slated to focus on the size and scope of US intelligence activities in the wake of the raid that killed bin Laden, said a Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.

MORE IMAGES