D.G.KHAN BOMB BLAST

DERA GHAZI KHAN: At least 24 people were killed and more than 60 others injured in a suicide car bomb blast on Tuesday afternoon in front of the house of Zulfiqar Ali Khosa, Senior Adviser to the Punjab chief minister.
Police put the toll at 24, but Rescue 1122 workers said they had counted 33 bodies.
The explosion in the Khosa Market shook the entire Dera Ghazi Khan town, which has a population of 300,000, and left a 15-foot deep and 30-foot wide crater.
According to the district police chief, about 1,000kgs of explosives were used in the attack.
He said the head and a leg of the bomber had been found. Several women and schoolchildren were among the victims.
Scores of shops and vehicles were destroyed and the buildings of two banks were damaged.
A witness told Dawn that the blast took place after the bomber tried to ram his car into Mr Khosa’s house.
The house and a nearby settlement, Basti Sheikhan, bore the brunt of the strike. An injured shopkeeper, Saeed Ansari, said the blast jolted his shop and he was trapped under the debris.
He called the rescue service from his cell phone. The rescue operation began promptly and search for bodies and injured people was under way till late in the evening.
The adviser’s family was not at the house when the attack took place, but his nephew Ali and niece Sidra were injured.
Rescue 1122’s official in charge said 40 injured people were admitted to the district headquarters hospital.
Dr Parwaiz Haider Altaf, a local official, said several of the injured were in critical condition.
He said doctors from the entire district had reached the DHQ hospital to cope with the emergency. He said the hospital had received 20 bodies.
On Feb 5, 27 participants of a religious gathering in the town were killed in a suicide attack.
Our Multan correspondent adds: Seven people injured in the Dera Ghazi Khan blast, most of them children, were admitted to the Nishtar Hospital.
AFP adds: Dera Ghazi Khan Commissioner Hassan Iqbal said: ‘The bomber rammed the explosive-laden car into the entrance’ of the market.
He said a body was later found in the car. He said many people were trapped in the rubble after the blast demolished around 10 shops.
‘It was a terrorist activity, similar to those being carried out in other parts of the country.’
The local hospital was ill-equipped to cope with heavy casualties and Mr Iqbal said special arrangements had been made for the supply of medicines. A helicopter was used to ferry the critically wounded to Multan.
A police official said the Khosa Market was the busiest shopping centre in the town. A mosque was also damaged, he added.