Twin bomb blasts in Rawalpindi, kill 29 and injure 66

Sep 04: Pakistan faces another bloody morning on Tuesday as at least 29 died and nearly 66 wounded in the fresh twin bomb blast held near the capital, official reported.

Rawalpindi, the military hub and sister city of Islamabad faced the two terrible bomb explosions within just fifteen minutes duration on Tuesday morning.

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The first bomb exploded in the rush hour morning time at 07:20 am local (0220 GMT) in a white bus in the city of busy Quasim bazaar area killing at least 17 people includes the passengers inside the bus while the second bomb blasted just after 15 minutes later of the first explode in a motorbike at the rushed R A Bazaar area that killed estimated 12 people near the scene, police said.

According to Javed Iqbal Cheema, the spokesperson for Interior Ministry, “the bus was believed to be carrying employees of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission” while Major General Waheed Arshad, the spokesperson of military said,” the authorities are trying to determine which department the people worked for”.

But the explosion was extremely powerful, which converted a white coloured bus into a garbled heap of metal. “The bus is completely destroyed and mutilated bodies lay on the street”, said an eyewitness. This explosion held nearly just half mile from the army headquarters whereas the second blast was also not so weaker than that of first that killed nearly 12 people on the spot and injured more than two dozens, said eyewitness and police.

“It is premature to identify the nature of blasts and the culprits and the investigation agencies have begun their task”, said Waheed. "It's terrorism because innocent people were killed in both blasts, both are terrorist acts and all the dead and wounded are Pakistanis," added Arshad.

Pakistan is facing the surge of terrorism since July, when Pakistani commandos tried to surrounds the ‘Red Mosque’ in the capital, Islamabad. That battle went many days in which several Afghani Taliban fighters were shot dead along with mosque clerics. The fundamentalists are very furious since then.

This terrorism act can be very volatile for the Pakistani government as many people of Pakistan want to see the democracy rule in the country and currently Pakistan is going on through a period of political uncertainty when army chief and president, General Pervez Musharraf is under international pressure to carry the general election. On the other hand Musharraf is not ready to take off military uniform while being on the top position.

Viewing the sensitive situation after the blast, security has been imposed in Lahore especially at bus stands, railway stations and airport. A famous airport is also situated in Rawalpindi.