Bomber Attacks Pakistani Press Club

Bomber Attacks Pakistani Press Club
By SALMAN MASOOD
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: December 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/world/asia/23pstan.html?ref=global-home


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least two people were killed and 18 were injured when a suicide bomber attacked the press club in the restive northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday, officials said.

Initial reports said a boy tried to push his way into the Peshawar Press Club building, then detonated his explosives-laden jacket when a police officer on guard insisted on a body search. The officer and an accountant for the press club were killed, along with bomber.

The explosion blew out the windows of the red-brick building, located on the busy Sher Shah Suri Road. Journalists said the building has been under threat from militants over the past four months as local and foreign reporters have been accused of favoring the government, the military and the security forces.

Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, has been the target of numerous terrorist attacks in recent months, apparent reprisals for the Pakistani military’s campaign against Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in nearby South Waziristan.

“This is a result of the wave of terrorism,” said Iftikhar Hussain, the provincial minister for information, who spoke to journalists at the scene on Tuesday. “Terrorists have no religion. We will have to go on the offensive instead of going on the defensive.”