Pakistan on high alert after further bomb blasts
Pakistan's main cities have been put on high alert after a series of bomb blasts yesterday
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Friday, 29, May 2009 10:08
Pakistan's main cities have been put on high alert after a series of bomb blasts yesterday.
Local officials are expecting continued retaliation over the military campaign in the Swat Valley after the Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Lahore which left at least 24 people dead on Wednesday.
Yesterday three further bombs exploded in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the Nroth West Frontier Province, while another detonated in Dera Ismail Khan, in total killing at least 12 people.
Claiming responsibility for Wednesday's attack, the Taliban also called on residents of other major cities to flee or face further aggression.
"I appeal to [people] of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to vacate their cities as there will be more such massive attacks, more dangerous than this and we will target government buildings and places," Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief, is quoted by al-Jazeera as saying.
Around two million people are believed to have been displaced as a result of the continuing military campaign against the Taliban in the Swat Valley, with humanitarian groups urging both sides to halt fighting to allow civilians to escape.