- Title: PAKISTAN: Bomb kills 20 at gas station in Faisalabad, many hurt
- Date: 9th March 2011
- Summary: BODY INSIDE WRECKED CAR PEOPLE HITTING WRECKED CAR TO PULL THE BODY OUT
- Embargoed: 24th March 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Pakistan, Pakistan
- Country: Pakistan
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVA4SIVK51EBN8XSDEK68RLS5DG1
- Story Text: Militants set off a car-bomb at a natural gas filling station in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad on Tuesday (March 8) killing about 20 people and wounding more than 100, police and city officials said.
The car-bomb set off gas cylinders causing a big explosion that destroyed or severely damaged nearby buildings and reduced numerous vehicles to burned-out wrecks.
There was no claim of responsibility but district police chief Aftab Cheema blamed militants behind a wave of recent bomb attacks in the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.
He said about 20 people had been killed and more than 100 wounded in the blast in Pakistan's textile-producing hub, 280 km (175 miles) southeast of the capital, Islamabad.
Many vehicles in Pakistan run on compressed natural gas and there are usually long queues of cars waiting to fill up at stations.
Cheema declined to speculate on the militants' target but said a "sensitive organization" had an office close to the filling station.
Media said the country's main police investigation agency had an office nearby.
Pakistan has seen a wave of bombs in the past three years, many in the northwest near the border with Afghanistan, where the military is battling al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban insurgents.
The army says that several military offensives have weakened the militants but bomb attacks are still common. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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