Peshawar: An explosion struck the office of an aid organisation in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border on Saturday, wounding a security guard, police said.
It was the ninth attack in two weeks in and around Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest and the main gateway to the al Qaeda and Taliban-infested frontier region. The area has been increasingly targeted as militants retaliate against an Army offensive aimed at routing Taliban militants from a nearby region.
The bomb was set off with a timer at about 7 am near the office's perimeter wall, said Liaquat Ali Khan, the police chief in Peshawar. The building belonging to Shift International, a group helping handicapped people, was damaged, he said.
The blast came a day after two police officers were killed and four others were wounded in a roadside bombing in Peshawar. A suicide bomber also killed 19 people in the city on Thursday.
Pakistan expressed fear on Friday that an increase of US troop numbers in Afghanistan could push militants across the border into its territory and called on the Americans to factor in that concern as part of their new war strategy.
The Pakistani concerns, raised by the Prime Minister during a meeting with visiting CIA director Leon Panetta, could pose another headache for President Barack Obama as he weighs military proposals to send 10,000 to 40,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan next year.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the United States must fully share its plans for Afghanistan with Pakistan so that it can contribute to them, according to a statement from his office.
The US embassy declined to comment on the CIA director's visit to the country. American security and government leaders have frequently visited Pakistan in recent weeks to urge it to do more against militants on its side of the border blamed for violence inside Afghanistan.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009, 11:36