DPA /Islamabad
Sixteen people were killed and major gas pipelines were blown up in a new wave of attacks across Pakistan as the government and Islamist militants prepared to hold another round of peace talks.
At least four women were killed in Peshawar city in the northwest when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside their house, police official Ihsan Shah said.
The attacker was reportedly aiming to detonate the explosives at a funeral service but entered the house after he was spotted and challenged by the police.
Also in the northwest, three school teachers were shot dead yesterday by gunmen in Hangu district, an area plagued by years of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shias, local police chief Iftikhar Ahmed said.
One woman died in explosions when separatists from southwestern Pakistan blew up three major gas pipelines, cutting supplies to millions of domestic and industrial consumers.
Meanwhile, separatist insurgents in Baluchistan province have blown up three pipelines supplying natural gas to the country’s biggest province Punjab, depriving factories and homes of fuel for several days, officials said yesterday.
The explosions occurred on Sunday night near the Punjabi city of Rahim Yar Khan, which lies close to the border with restive Baluchistan province, said Arif Hameed, a spokesman for Sui Northern Gas company.
“Three gas pipelines were simultaneously blown up, measuring 36, 18 and 13 inches in diameter, that disrupted gas supply to Punjab,” he said, adding workmen would have the lines repaired over the next two days.
Sarbaz Baloch, a spokesman for the Baluch Republican Army, said by phone his group had carried out the attacks.
Also overnight, gunmen on motorbikes hurled a grenade and shot at people gathered inside the house of a faith healer in the southern city of Karachi, killing eight people including an 8-year-old girl.
Police official Haseeb Khan said more than a dozen people were injured in the attack, the second in the city against the followers of Sufi Islam, a school of thought opposed by Taliban hardliners.
The attacks occurred amid reports that negotiators from the government and Pakistani Taliban would hold another meeting today to carry forward peace talks they opened last week.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last month invited militants for talks for a negotiated settlement of a decade-old conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
Workers repair gas pipelines after they were blown up by unidentified men near the Punjabi town of Rahim Yar Khan, about 600km south of Islamabad yest
