Bombing kills 12, wounds 35 in northwestern Pakistan

All local hospitals have been put on alert after the blast on Tuesday outside the National Database and Registration Authority office in Mardan, where people had been queuing up for their national identity cards.

“A suicide bomber riding an explosives-laden motorcycle hit the Nadra office in Mardan where a large number of people were standing in queues”, he said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but previous such attacks have been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban. The area was cordoned off as rescue and security sources rushed to the site. Other groups also claimed responsibility for that attack.

Pakistan has been battling armed groups since 2004 in a conflict that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and security forces personnel.

The injured people have been shifted to District Hospital and Mardan Medical complex by the rescue teams where several of them are said to be in critical condition.

Deputy Inspector General Mardan Division Saeed Wazir also told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper that the incident was a “suicide attack carried out by a bomber”. Wazir said if the attacker had managed to enter the government office, he might have killed many more people.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the blast and expressed sympathies with the bereaved families.

Officials of the Bomb Disposal Unit said that around 20 pounds of explosive material was used in the attack.

On Dec 2, Pakistan hanged four men linked to the Taliban’s massacre of more than 130 schoolchildren at an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December 2014. Since the school attack, Pakistan has executed 330 people, majority convicted criminals, not militants.