At least 12 people, including two women and a child, were killed in a Taliban suicide car bombing in Karachi targeting a senior Pakistani counter-terrorism official and an explosion at a music shop in Peshawar, the capital of restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
In a brazen attack, a Taliban suicide bomber rammed his 300 kg explosive-laden vehicle into the house of Special Superintendent of Police Chaudhry Aslam in Karachi, killing eight persons including six policemen, a mother and her child.
While a powerful explosion ripped through a market in Peshawar city in northwest Pakistan today, including a woman. The explosion targeted a shop selling CDs in Nishatarbad area of Peshawar, officials said. A woman was among the dead.
Aslam, who was the target in Karachi, had a miraculous escape in the early morning attack that flattened his house in the posh Defence area of Pakistan's commercial capital.
Six of those killed in the attack that took place at 7:30 am. The banned terror group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack and has given a list of five officers who they will target.
Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan said the attack was carried out to avenge "Taliban brothers who were killed" by Aslam. "We will also kill the other friends of the SSP, namely Fiyaz Khan, Raja Ummar Khitab, Mazhar Mashwani, Khurram Waris and Farooq Awan," he said.
People should not go near government officers, especially employees of intelligence agencies, as they could become "victim of our attacks" as the Taliban wanted to avoid civilian casualties, Ihsan said.
