Suicide blast kills over 30 outside Pakistani bank (2nd Roundup)

Rawalpindi, Pakistan - A suicide bomber on a motorbike detonated explosives Monday in a busy commercial area in Pakistan's garrison town of Rawalpindi, killing at least 33 people and injuring dozens, police said. The bombing came as the country's military announced it had overrun a militant stronghold in its offensive against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants near the Afghan border, killing 12 rebels. The Rawalpindi blast occurred outside a state-run bank and a private hotel, a few hundred metres from the Pakistan Army's headquarters, which was attacked by Taliban militants last month. According to the officials at three hospitals in the city, 33 dead bodies and more than 60 injured were brought there. Earlier, Aslam Tarin, the city's police chief, told reporters at the scene that at least 30 people were killed and 45 injured. The blast occurred when government employees and security personnel - mostly from the military - as well as pensioners were withdrawing their salaries from the bank. Tarin said most of the dead were law enforcement personnel, adding that it was a suicide bombing carried out by a man riding a motorbike. 'The explosives were apparently planted in the motorbike,' he said. The attacker hurled a hand grenade at people queued up outside the bank before detonating the bomb, which damaged a nearby hotel and several cars waiting at a traffic signal. 'When I reached the scene, there were dead and wounded people lying everywhere,' witness Shaukat Ali said. 'Some bodies did not have heads, and some were missing legs,' he said. 'People covered the women whose clothes were burned by the explosion. It was so shameful.' The scene of Monday's blast was half a kilometre from the country's military headquarters, where 10 gunmen held dozens of army officers and civilians for more than 20 hours last month. Twenty- three people, including nine attackers, died in that raid. Rawalpindi is located adjacent to the capital, Islamabad, which has also seen several attacks in recent months. A few hours after the Rawalpindi blast, a suicide bomber blew himself up when the police stopped his car stopped for a search at a six-lane motorway just outside Lahore, a city of more than 7 million population. Seven people, including three policemen, were injured while the bomber and his colleague died in the explosion, said city police chief Pervez Rathore. The attackers were trying to enter the city, he added. No one claimed immediate responsibility for Monday's bombings, but Taliban militants have intensified attacks on civilian and official targets as the military conducts a major offensive in their heartland of South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan. Major General Athar Abbas, the military's chief spokesman, told reporters that the militants were on the run there and troops had taken 'full control' of their important stronghold in Kaniguram village. 'Twelve terrorists died and the same numbers were injured while six soldiers were wounded,' Abbas told reporters in Islamabad. According to the military, more than 343 Taliban and 36 soldiers have so far been killed in the offensive. The figures could not be independently verified because reporters have been barred from the conflict zone. As the government forces push ahead in the militant heartland, the authorities on Monday announced rewards totalling 5 million dollars for information leading to the arrests of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and 18 of his top aides. The highest bounties of 600,000 dollars were placed on the heads of Mehsud; his deputy in South Waziristan, Wali-ur-Rehman; and lieutenant Qari Hussain, believed to be a mentor of suicide bombers. Meanwhile, the United Nations said Monday that it was partially withdrawing its staff from the troubled North-West Frontier Province and the neighbouring tribal area, which includes South Waziristan, because of the 'intense security situation in the region.'