Suicide bomber strikes airport in Islamabad, PM Aziz ‘likely target’

It’s likely that the bomber did not have precise information since senior officials use a separate terminal. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that airport security officials arrested a man who was trying to flee the scene. It was unclear whether the detained man was a suspected accomplice of the attacker.

This is the latest in a series of suicide attacks in the capital and in the North-West Frontier Province following a US airstrike against a madrassa in Pakistan’s tribal belt.

A security official stopped the bomber, who was on foot, said Mohammed Farooq, a police official at the central control room in Rawalpindi where the airport is located. After a brief exchange of fire, the attacker detonated the bomb, he said.

Farooq said two police officers were wounded, one seriously. Another police official, Mohammed Afzal, said the blast damaged several cars and hurt some people. Police cordoned off the area, and the wounded people were being transported to a hospital, he said.

Mohammed Sarib, who was at the airport to collect someone arriving on a flight, said he saw a man exchanging fire with security officials. “That man later blew himself up,” he told The Associated Press.

The bombing follows a series of suicide attacks targeting security forces in northwestern Pakistan, where pro-Taliban militants are active, and a January 26 blast at Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel that killed one security guard and wounded seven other people.