(From AFP)
A suicide bomber killed 13 people and injured 23 in northwest Pakistan Monday, in an attack which the Taliban said was revenge for the hanging of an Islamist assassin last week.
The bomber attacked as lawyers and litigants were arriving at a court complex during the morning rush hour in the town of Shabqadar.
Senior police official Fayaz Khan said 13 people had been killed and 23 wounded after the bomber blew himself up inside the complex, with the toll confirmed by a local administration official.
The Pakistani Taliban’s Jamat-ul-Ahrar faction claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it avenged the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri — feted as a hero by Islamists after he gunned down the liberal governor of Punjab in 2011 over a call to reform the country’s blasphemy law.
Qadri was hanged on February 29 in what analysts described as a “key moment” in Pakistan’s long fight against militancy, saying it demonstrated the government’s resolve to uphold the rule of law rather than allow extremism to flourish.
His funeral brought up to 100,000 people on to the streets hailing him as a hero. Read More