PESHAWAR: A huge explosion ripped through the sole five-star hotel of the Frontier province’s metropolis on Tuesday evening, killing 11 people. A foreign national was among the dead.
More than 50 people, including foreigners, were injured.
Police said that armed men first launched a frontal assault on the main entrance to the Pearl Continental Hotel, killing security guards. They then lowered down an electronic barrier so that an explosives-laden mini-truck could get in.
‘The assailants first killed the security guards on the main gate to lower the electronic barrier and then went inside the main parking lot, firing indiscriminately.’
‘A mini-truck laden with explosives then entered the hotel premises and exploded in the main parking lot close to the main building,’ Capital City Police Chief Safwat Ghayyir told Dawn.
‘I was going for my night shift when I heard intense firing between the security guards and the armed men. Then there was a big explosion. I don’t remember what happened next,’ said Nasir, one of the wounded security guards at the hotel.
He said that three armed men, wearing military uniform and riding on a white-double cabin pick-up truck, started shooting at the security guards while one of them was firing into the air.
The same truck then drove into the parking lot and exploded, he said.
Ikram, an accountant at the hotel, said he saw armed men firing from a white colour double pick-up. ‘I took refuge in the small mosque in the parking area.’
Police, quoting eyewitnesses, said the assailants were three in number and the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber.
NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that eleven people had died in the attack and more than fifty were injured.
‘This is what we know from the ground, although only two bodies have been taken to the nearby hospital.’
District Coordination Officer Sahibzada Mohammad Anees and the CCPO confirmed the death of only two workers.
The hotel was frequented by expatriates, more so in recent days, by staff members of aid organisations looking after the internally displaced people from Malakand division.
One of the dead included a Russian employee of an international humanitarian organisation. He was identified by his first name, Joseph.
Among the injured were citizens of the United Kingdom, Somalia, Germany and Madagascar.
The hotel is located near the the residence of the Peshawar Corps Commander and the Commandant of Frontier Constabulary, which is presently occupied by NWFP’s Inspector-General of Police Malik Naveed Khan.
The explosion caused the western side of the hotel to collapse. Police and rescue workers feared that many might have been buried under the rubble.
‘This attack has all the signatures of the Rescue 15 attack in Lahore. The same tactics appeared to have been repeated here,’ one security official said.
Shafqat Malik of the Bomb Disposal Squad told reporters outside the hotel that the explosives weighed between 500 and 550 kilograms. ‘It was a massive car bombing,’ he said.
The explosion caused a 16 by 15 feet crater.
‘I don’t think we have ever had an explosion in Peshawar of this magnitude,’ Senior Superintendent of Police Qazi Jameel said.
Peshawar has been under a high state of alert for the past one week after intelligence agencies warned of terrorist attacks against landmark buildings.
‘It is too early to pin blame on a particular group. But this appears to have come from the same group that masterminded the Rescue 15 attack,’ the security official said.
The CCPO said that a few suspects had been detained for questioning. ‘Investigations are under way,’ he said.
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