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This is an archive article published on February 10, 2011
31 killed as schoolboy bomber strikes at Pak Army centre
A teen suicide bomber in a school uniform attacked the soldiers during morning exercises in NW Pakistan.
Written by Associated Press
Peshawar | February 10, 2011 11:28 AM IST
2 min read
2 min read
In one of the deadliest strikes on the Pakistan army,a schoolboy suicide bomber sneaked into a heavily guarded Pakistani army training centre in the country’s northwest area on Thursday and blew himself up in the midst of a parade,killing 31 soldiers and leaving 40 more wounded.
“It was a suicide attack by a 12-year-old bomber in school uniform,” top police officer Abdullah Khan said on the early morning attack on the army’s elite Punjab Regimental Centre at Mardan,60 kms northeast of Peshawar.
Thirty-one army personnel were killed and 40 others injured,most of them critically in the powerful blast at 0815 am,which could be heard several kms away. An army spokesman confirmed the incident.
Police said the condition of some of the injured was critical and the toll could go up. The responsibility for the hit was claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban,who threatened to carry out even “bigger strike” to avenge US drone strike and military operation in the region.
The hit on the Punjab Regimental Centre was one of the worst strikes on the Pakistan army deeply involved for last two years in operations in the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa province bordering Afghanistan to flush out Taliban militants.
Khan said the schoolboy managed to sneak into the sprawling heavily-guarded compound carrying a lethal payload apparently in his school bag and triggered the explosion as the troops were readying for the daily parade.
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