Suicide Attacks in North West Frontier Province

• July 13, 2008: Four persons were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up soon after the concluding session of the Shuhada-e-Islam Conference in Dera Ismail Khan. Eyewitnesses and the police said the participants of the Shuhada-e-Islam Conference of the Shias, held in Kotly Imam Hussain, were returning to their homes when a suicide bomber, aged about 16, blew himself up.

• May 18, 2008: 13 persons, including five soldiers, were killed and 23 others, including 11 soldiers, sustained injuries in a suicide attack at the Punjab Regiment Centre market in the Cantonment area of Mardan.

• May 9, 2008: Three policemen were injured after a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into the Mingora Police Station in the Swat district.

• May 6, 2008: A suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint in Bannu, killing a police constable and two civilians and injuring 12 persons, including four army soldiers and four policemen.

• March 17, 2008: Two policemen, Toor Gul and Aanayatur Rehman, were killed and five others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber blew himself in the police barracks in Mingora in the Swat district. District Police Officer Waqif Khan said that a young man posing as a recruit and holding a police uniform entered the barracks at Mingora Police Line and subsequently approached the wireless room and blew himself up.

• March 2, 2008: 42 people were killed and at least 58 others were wounded in a suicide bombing at a tribal peace jirga (council) near the Zarghunkhel check-post in Darra Adam Khel. The jirga of Zarghunkhel, Akhurwal, Sheraki, Bostikhel and Toor Chapper tribes had been convened to discuss the formation of a Lashkar (army) to drive militants out of the area. A severed head was reportedly found at the site and officials believed it was that of the bomber. Some people identified the teenager as a youth from the Sheraki area of Darra Adam Khel.

• February 29, 2008: Forty people were killed and more than 75 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the funeral prayers of the slain Deputy Superintendent of Police (Lakki Marwat), Javed Iqbal Khan, in the Mingora city of Swat district. Among the dead were a son of the deceased police officer, Ghazan Khan, and the Station House Officer of Mingora police station Habib Jamal. Deputy Superintendent of Police Javed Iqbal had earlier died in a bomb blast in the morning along with three other policemen in the southern Lakki Marwat district.

• February 9, 2008: 27 people were killed and over 30 injured in a suicide attack on an election rally at Nakai near Charsadda town. Senior Awami National Party leader Afrasiab Khattak, who was addressing the gathering, escaped unhurt. The Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said, "I have been told that most probably it was a suicide attack."

• January 17, 2008: At least 12 persons were killed and 25 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in an imambargah (congregation hall for Shia rituals) in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Police said that the teenage bomber blew himself at the crowded Mirza Qasim Baig Imambargah in the Mohalla Janghi area at around 6.55pm (PST).

• January 7, 2008: A suicide bomber blew himself up in an explosive-laden vehicle near a military base camp at Kabal in the Swat district, injuring 10 people, including eight soldiers. The suicide bomber was driving a single-cabin pick-up, which exploded at 11.15am in front of the gate of the Frontier Golf Club, a military base camp. The blast destroyed the building of a technical institute and partially damaged the buildings of the Iqra Academy.

• December 17, 2007: At least 12 army recruits were killed and two wounded in a suicide attack near the Army Public College in the heart of the Kohat cantonment area. The recruits were returning to their barracks after the morning exercise when a boy aged 15 to 17 years rushed towards them and blew himself up. Ten recruits were killed on the spot and two others died later in hospital.

• December 15, 2007: A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden bicycle into a military check-post, killing five persons and injuring 11 others in Nowshera. The District Police Officer Mubarak Zeb said that six people, including the bicycle-borne suicide bomber, were killed as he detonated himself at the entrance of the Army Supply Corps centre.

• December 9, 2007: Three police personnel and seven civilians, including two children, were killed and a child was wounded in a car bombing in the Swat district . The suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden jeep when he was stopped at the Ningolai check-post in Kabal sub-division at around 11.15am. According to a bomb disposal official, about 10kg to 15kg of explosives were used in the blast. "It was a suicide attack," said Swat Media Centre spokesman Major Amjad Iqbal.

• December 4, 2007: In the first such attack of its kind, a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a high security zone in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province. Except for the suicide bomber, who was said to be in her mid-30s, no other casualty was reported in the blast. The offices of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are located in the maximum-security Peshawar Cantonment area. Peshawar police chief Tanveerul Haq Sipra said the bomber blew herself up when she was stopped at a military check-post on the Babar Road, adding, "From her body parts, we have confirmed the gender of the bomber. She seems to be an Afghan and around 34 years of age."

• November 9, 2007: Three persons are killed and two others, including a former provincial minister, are injured when a suicide bomber blows himself up in the house of Federal Minister for Political Affairs Amir Muqam in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. The blast occurs at around 3.45pm (PST) when the minister was having a meeting with some of his associates at his home in Hayatabad. Muqam, who is also provincial president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, escaped unhurt.

• October 25, 2007: Eighteen soldiers and two civilians died and 35 others, including nine civilians, were injured in a bomb blast aimed at a vehicle carrying Frontier Constabulary personnel at Nawan Killi in the Swat district of the North West Frontier Province.

• October 1, 2007: A suicide bomber disguised in a woman's burqa (veil) blew himself up at a busy police check-post in Bannu killing at least 16 people, including four police personnel, and wounding 29 people.

• September 22, 2007: A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden jeep into a military truck near Tank, killing himself and wounding three soldiers. Eyewitnesses said a military convoy was going from Tank to Jandola in Waziristan when the jeep hit one of the vehicles carrying soldiers near a customs check post.

• September 11, 2007: 19 people were killed and 15 others wounded when a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up near a thickly-populated area of Bannu Choongi in the Dera Ismail Khan district. The incident occurred at around 3:10 pm (PST) when police directed a suspected passenger of a pickup on the way to Kech village to come out and offer a body search.

• August 26, 2007: Four police personnel were killed and two others sustained injuries in a suicide attack on a police van in the mountainous Shangla district.

• August 20, 2007: Six security force (SF) personnel were killed and 18 persons, including a civilian, were wounded when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a checkpoint on Kurram Road in the Hangu district of NWFP. A woman is reported to have died when SFs opened indiscriminate fire after the incident.

• August 18, 2007: A suicide bomber blew himself up after being cornered by police, injuring a police personnel and a civilian at Bannu.

• August 3, 2007: A suicide blast targeting the family of a government official killed two persons and injured six members of the family in the Gora village of Swat district.

• July 19, 2007: Fifteen persons, including a prayer leader and two children, were killed and several people injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up during night prayers at a mosque at Pathan Lines Centre in the Kohat Cantonment area. Most of the victims were reportedly army officials. Interior Minister Sherpao said, "Indirectly these attacks are a backlash reaction against the Red Mosque."

  Five civilians and two policemen were killed and 35 people injured when a suicide bomber set off his explosives-packed car at the Hangu Police Training College.

• July 15, 2007: At least 13 security force personnel and six civilians, including three children, were killed and more than 50 people sustained injuries at Matta in the Swat district when two suicide bombers rammed two cars packed with explosives into an army convoy early in the morning.

  A suicide bomber blew himself up at the Dera Ismail Khan Police Lines as candidates took police entrance exams. Police official Safiullah said that 26 people were killed, including 12 police personnel and the suicide bomber, and 61 others were wounded.

• July 12, 2007: A suicide bomber killed three police personnel, Sub-Inspector Taj Maluk and constables Riaz and Islam Gul, by detonating the explosives wrapped around his waist in the Swat district of North West Frontier Province. The suicide attack came moments after a military convoy passed through the area, informed police officer Abdur Rashid Khan. Unconfirmed reports said that there were two suicide bombers.

• May 28, 2007: A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden Land Cruiser into a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle in the Boltonabad area of Bannu district, killing two FC personnel, Fareed Hussain and Nametullah, and injuring another, identified as Masood Afsar. The Area Force Commander Muqabil Mahsud said that the FC convoy comprising three vehicles was heading from Tank to Boltonabad to secure the area when it was ambushed. He said the explosive-laden Land Cruiser coming from the opposite direction rammed into the paramilitary vehicle, causing a massive blast while another car driven by militants sped away.

• May 15, 2007: Twenty-five people were killed and at least 35 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up on the ground floor of the Marhaba Hotel in Peshawar. The attack occurred at approximately 12:50 pm when the restaurant was crowded with customers for lunch. Most of those killed were Afghans, including the restaurant’s owner Sadruddin and his two sons, two women and a five year-old child. Witnesses and police said that restaurant owner Sadruddin was an Uzbek of Afghan origin and he was a supporter of former Uzbek warlord Abdur Rashid Dostum.

• April 28, 2007: Thirty-one people, including five police personnel, were killed and the Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and his young son Sikandar Sherpao Khan were among several people wounded in a suicide attack, moments after the Minister finished a speech at a public rally in his hometown Charsadda. The head of the suicide bomber, who was aged between 30 and 35 years, was found at the site of the blast near Station Koroona, and Inspector General of Police Sharif Virk noted that "he looks like an Afghan".

• February 3, 2007: A suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden jeep into a military convoy, killing two soldiers and injuring seven in the Barakhel area of Tank District.

  A suspected militant blew himself up while planting a bomb outside a video and music shop in Lakki Marwat. The blast damaged a dozen nearby shops in the town, a settled area near Bannu District.

• January 29, 2007: A suicide bomber killed three people, including two police personnel, at Dera Ismail Khan. Assistant Superintendent of Police, Captain Hamad, stated that the suicide bomber blew himself up as policeman, Abdul Halim, was searching him.

• January 27, 2007: Fifteen people, including six police officials, were killed and 60 others injured in a suicide attack targeting a Muharram (Shia religious) procession near Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in Peshawar. The Peshawar Police Commissioner, Mallik Muhammad Saad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, three other police personnel and a Nazim (local official) were among those killed.

• November 17, 2006: A suicide bomber, identified as Nadeem Khan, killed himself and injured two police personnel when he targeted a police van at the Bara intersection on the Ring Road in Peshawar.

• November 8, 2006: A suicide bomber blew himself up at an Army training centre at Dargai, killing 42 and injuring 39 recruits of the Punjab Regiment Centre and their instructor.

• June 2, 2006: At least five soldiers and two suicide bombers were killed and seven soldiers sustained injuries when a car laden with explosives rammed into a military vehicle in the Bakakhel area of Bannu. The army convoy was reportedly proceeding from Mirali in North Waziristan to its base camp in the Bannu district when the attack occurred.

• February 9, 2006: At least 40 people are killed and 50 others wounded in a suspected suicide attack on a Muharram procession of Shia Muslims in the Hangu town.

• April 28, 2005: Two suspected terrorists blow themselves up while planting a bomb in the Baidara village of Swat district.