Suicide attack kills at least 34 near Pakistani army HQ in Rawalpindi

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At least 34 people were killed and many others injured in a suicide bomb attack on a busy commercial area close to the Pakistani Army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi yesterday. It was the second attack in the high-security zone within a month.

The bomber on a motorbike blew himself up outside a crowded bank a few hundred metres away from the scene of last month's attack.

Government employees lined up outside the National Bank branch to collect their salary were among the victims. Several offices, a part of a nearby hotel and a number of vehicles were destroyed.

Zahid Dar was driving through the main Mall Road. “There was huge blast and I was thrown off my motorbike,“ he said.“The street was strewn with dead bodies and broken glasses. Many of the dead were in the army uniform.”

Doctors at a district hospital said that the death toll could rise as many of the injured were in a critical state. Some of the bodies could not be identified. At least five women were among the victims.

No one has claimed responsibility but security officials suspect that the Taleban, who claimed responsibility for previous attacks, could be involved.

The attack came as the UN suspended long-term development work in two key areas along Pakistan's volatile border with Afghanistan in a blow to international efforts to counter the country's rising militancy.

The UN decision, which applies to Pakistan's tribal areas and North West Frontier Province, came after 11 of its staff were killed this year.

The UN will reduce the level of international staff in the country and confine its work to emergency, humanitarian relief and security operations, and also “any other essential operations as advised by the Secretary-General”, the organisation said.

The UN has been deeply involved in helping Pakistan to deal with refugee crises that have resulted from army offensives against militants in the north west. It assisted in relief camps set up to house some of the two million people displaced by an operation begun this spring in the Swat Valley.

It is also providing relief goods for those forced to leave South Waziristan because of an offensive last month against the Taleban and al-Qaeda strongholds in tribal areas. Militants have responded to the operations with a wave of attacks against security forces and civilians, including UN personnel.

In the deadliest attack in more than two years, more than 120 people were killed and scores more wounded last Wednesday when a car bomb was detonated in a crowded market in the northwest frontier city of Peshawar. The Taleban threatened more attacks if Pakistan did not stop military offensives in the tribal region.

A military spokesman said that the troops were engaged in a fierce battle in Kaniguram town, a Taleban stronghold where hundreds of Uzbek fighters were entrenched. Security forces have captured Kotkai, the birthplace of Hakimullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taleban and hometown of Qari Hussain, another senior militant commander.

The latest attack in Rawalpindi came as Pakistani authorities announced a $50 million (£30.5 million) bounty on the heads of eight top militant commanders including Hakimullah, who is spearheading the battle in the tribal region.

"These people are definitely killers of humanity and deserve exemplary punishment," read the front-page advertisement, with photographs of Hakimullah and seven senior lieutenants in the national newspapers. "Help the government of Pakistan so that these people meet their nemesis."