* More than 40 wounded as bomb explodes near administration office where refugees had lined up to get rations
Follow up:
JALOZAI: A car bomb tore through a refugee camp on Thursday, killing 15 people including women and children and heightening security fears before a May general election.
More than 40 other people were wounded when the bomb exploded at Jalozai, the country’s largest refugee camp, as scores of people queued for rations.
Jalozai is home to tens of thousands of people displaced from the tribal belt, a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants, on the Afghan border.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
But officials linked the attack to fighting in Khyber district, where the military has stepped up an offensive against Taliban and local militia, and from where most camp residents have fled.
“The bomb exploded in a car parked near the administration office where refugees had lined up to get rations and new arrivals were being registered,” said camp police official Fuad Khan.
“A Suzuki car was used in the attack,” said an aid worker of an international NGO wishing not to be named. “These IDPs were waiting for food packets when the attack happened,” she went on to add.
Militants had been hurling threats at the provincial government saying not to register new internally displaced persons from Tirrah valley, the aid worker said.
District police chief Mohammad Hussain said the bomb was detonated by a timer and carried up to 35 kilograms of explosives and mortar bombs.
An AFP reporter saw scenes of devastation, with pieces of flesh and blood splattering the area.
Spilt grain and children’s food supplements littered the ground next to discarded toys, sandals and twisted metal. The engine of the car which exploded lay around 50 feet from a two-foot crater left by the blast.
Tariq Khan, a 40-year-old displaced driver from Khyber, said he was in his tent when he heard a “very loud” blast and saw thick black smoke.
“I rushed to the spot and saw bodies lying in a pool of blood and wounded people crying in pain. I saw small pieces of human flesh everywhere and found my uncle, both of whose legs had gone, and he was crying with pain,” Khan told AFP.
“I lifted him and looked for a car and luckily found one nearby and took him to hospital,” he said.
Jehanzeb Khan, 27, another refugee from Khyber, also helped to rescue the wounded.
“I saw bodies, blood and wounded everywhere. I started lifting the wounded and put them in the cars and ambulances and the white clothes I put on this morning turned all red with blood,” Khan said. Local administration official Ayaz Khan Mandokhel said 15 people were killed, including two children aged around eight and 10 and three women.
Hussain, the police official, confirmed the death toll. “There are 41 injured, four of them are in a critical condition,” he added.
Rations were being handed out by a local charity BEST in partnership with the United Nations and the US Agency for International Development.
Mohammad Ashraf, project director at BEST, a UN partner, said a 30-year-old female member of staff who worked on hygiene was killed. Nine other members of staff who were distributing food were wounded, he said.
Follow up:
JALOZAI: A car bomb tore through a refugee camp on Thursday, killing 15 people including women and children and heightening security fears before a May general election.
More than 40 other people were wounded when the bomb exploded at Jalozai, the country’s largest refugee camp, as scores of people queued for rations.
Jalozai is home to tens of thousands of people displaced from the tribal belt, a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants, on the Afghan border.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
But officials linked the attack to fighting in Khyber district, where the military has stepped up an offensive against Taliban and local militia, and from where most camp residents have fled.
“The bomb exploded in a car parked near the administration office where refugees had lined up to get rations and new arrivals were being registered,” said camp police official Fuad Khan.
“A Suzuki car was used in the attack,” said an aid worker of an international NGO wishing not to be named. “These IDPs were waiting for food packets when the attack happened,” she went on to add.
Militants had been hurling threats at the provincial government saying not to register new internally displaced persons from Tirrah valley, the aid worker said.
District police chief Mohammad Hussain said the bomb was detonated by a timer and carried up to 35 kilograms of explosives and mortar bombs.
An AFP reporter saw scenes of devastation, with pieces of flesh and blood splattering the area.
Spilt grain and children’s food supplements littered the ground next to discarded toys, sandals and twisted metal. The engine of the car which exploded lay around 50 feet from a two-foot crater left by the blast.
Tariq Khan, a 40-year-old displaced driver from Khyber, said he was in his tent when he heard a “very loud” blast and saw thick black smoke.
“I rushed to the spot and saw bodies lying in a pool of blood and wounded people crying in pain. I saw small pieces of human flesh everywhere and found my uncle, both of whose legs had gone, and he was crying with pain,” Khan told AFP.
“I lifted him and looked for a car and luckily found one nearby and took him to hospital,” he said.
Jehanzeb Khan, 27, another refugee from Khyber, also helped to rescue the wounded.
“I saw bodies, blood and wounded everywhere. I started lifting the wounded and put them in the cars and ambulances and the white clothes I put on this morning turned all red with blood,” Khan said. Local administration official Ayaz Khan Mandokhel said 15 people were killed, including two children aged around eight and 10 and three women.
Hussain, the police official, confirmed the death toll. “There are 41 injured, four of them are in a critical condition,” he added.
Rations were being handed out by a local charity BEST in partnership with the United Nations and the US Agency for International Development.
Mohammad Ashraf, project director at BEST, a UN partner, said a 30-year-old female member of staff who worked on hygiene was killed. Nine other members of staff who were distributing food were wounded, he said.
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