Taliban claims responsibility for Pakistan suicide blast

Xinhua, March 9, 2011

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban) claimed the responsibility for Tuesday morning's suicide car blast that claimed over 20 lives and injured more than one hundred others in Pakistan's eastern city of Faisalabad, reported local Urdu TV channel ARY.

Pakistani rescue workers carry a blast victim at the site of a blast in Faisalabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo]

Tuesday Morning, at about 10:15 a.m. local Time, an explosive- laden vehicle tried to force into an intelligence office building located at the Civil Lines area of Faisalabad, a city some 100 kilometers southwest of Lahore.

Local media quoted the city's District Coordination Officer Naseem Sadiq as saying that the blast happened when gunmen guarding the gate of the intelligence office building shot back at the driver of the vehicle.

The driver received a bullet in his hand and exploded the vehicle with a remote control after he jumped off the vehicle. The injured driver was later arrested by the police.

The huge blast caused by the explosives carried on the vehicle seriously damaged the buildings nearby the intelligence office building, including a Pakistan International Airlines office building. The intelligence official building was also partially damaged.

The blast subsequently led to another explosion of a nearby compressed natural gas (CNG) station. At least a dozen cars were destroyed in the blast and a lot of buildings nearby the gas station were also destroyed.

One local media report quoted eyewitnesses as saying that at least 15 people were buried under the debris of three completely destroyed houses nearby the blast site. Rescue workers took hours to have those buried under the collapsed buildings saved.