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Also, over 2,227 civilians and around 1,004 security personnel were martyred during terrorist attacks, including bombings and rocket attacks, throughout the country. The reported number of militants killed during the year was over 8,000.

About 49 suicide attacks were carried out in NWFP alone. Statistics revealed that Punjab was the next major target of suicide bombers after NWFP. Twenty-two suicide bombers succeeded to carry out attacks in various parts of Punjab and Islamabad during the last 12 months.

Seven suicide bombings occurred in the federally administered tribal areas (Fata), while two bombers struck in Balochistan. Sindh was spared as there was no suicide bombing there during 2009.

The year 2009 recorded over 33 percent more attacks than 2008. Fifty-nine bombers struck in 2008 and 56 in 2007. The number of such attacks was seven in 2006, four in 2005, seven in 2004 and two each in 2003 and 2002.

January, July and September remained a little peaceful. Nine suicide bombings were carried out across the country during the current month, nine each in October and November, four in September, six in August, four in July, nine in June, seven in May, six in April, seven each in March and February and three in January.

The deadliest suicide attack was the one at Meena Bazaar in Peshawar on October 29 in which over 120 people were killed and 200 were injured. Several people, still missing, are now believed to have been blown to pieces.

The bombing at Parade Lane Mosque in Rawalpindi during the first week of December was another deadly bombing that claimed the lives of several senior military officials, including a major general, two brigadiers and two colonels. The lone son of Corps Commander Peshawar was among several children of the army officers who lost their lives in this attack.

Among the high-profile figures killed during the terrorist attacks in 2009 were two members of the NWFP Assembly. Dr Shamsher Ali Khan was killed in a suicide bombing in Swat last month while Alamzeb Khan was killed in a roadside bomb attack on his car in Peshawar in January.

NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour survived second suicide attack on him on March 11, which left six people including two suicide bombers dead.

The suicide bombers detonated a vehicle loaded with 100 kilograms of explosives near offices of the capital city police officer (CCPO) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Lahore on March 11, killing at least 27 persons and injuring 326 others. An ISI colonel and 15 police officials were among those killed.

The blast at the entrance to the ISI headquarters on Khyber Road in Peshawar was the most powerful. The bang was heard even in other districts. At least 13 people, including 10 security men, were killed in the attack and the destruction of infrastructure was huge.

The suicide attack on Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar on June 9 and the huge blast in Soekarno Square on October 9 were the two other deadly blasts. Over 17 people were killed and over 60 wounded in the bombing in Peshawar's lone five-star hotel, prompting foreigners and diplomats to leave the provincial capital. The blast in Soekarno Square left over 55 people killed and many wounded. It was later removed from the list of suicide bombings, and classified as a car bomb.

On June 5, a suicide bomber killed 49 worshippers, including 12 children, at a mosque in a remote village of Dir Upper District. Dozens more were injured as a young man detonated explosives fastened to his body minutes before the Friday congregation in the Hayagay Sharqi village.

Two successive blasts killed around 50 people and injured more than 100 at the crowded Moon Market in Allama Iqbal Town of Lahore in Punjab. The two bombs exploded with an interval of 30 seconds.

A total of four attacks, which included a suicide car bomb attack on a police patrol, marked the third time since August that government buildings were targeted with multiple blasts that caused massive bloodshed.

The core of the attacks hit central Baghdad with three car bombs exploding in the span of a few minutes. The attacks were directed at Iraqi authorities: the targets were the labour ministry building, a court complex near the Iraqi- protected Green Zone and near the new site of the finance ministry after its previous building was destroyed in major attacks in August.

An official for Iraq's interior ministry said at least 99 people were killed in those three car bombs and at least 192 injured.

About an hour before the Baghdad blasts, a suicide car bomber struck a police patrol in the Sunni- dominated district of Dora in southern Baghdad, killing at least three policemen and one civilian and wounding five persons, a police officer said.

Iraqi police said at least one of the Baghdad blasts was a suicide bomber -- driving a bomb- rigged ambulance heading for the finance ministry. The other two explosions may have been car- rigged bombs detonated by timer or trigger.

" What crime have we committed? Children and women were buried under debris. Why did they ( Iraqi troops) let this car bomb pass!" cried Ahmed Jabbar as he staggered through the debris near the new finance ministry building. The blast tore through a nearby market and toppled at least one building nearby. Rescue teams -- some using construction cranes -- tried to clear the rubble to look for survivors.

The breakdown of casualties among the sites was not immediately clear, but the most serious bloodshed had been reported outside the finance ministry building and the court complex.

Rescue workers climbed through twisted steel bars and crushed concrete at the court building. Dozens of cars and trucks were burnt and crushed. Firefighters pulled out survivors from behind huge slabs of toppled concrete.

Militants are said to have killed at least 35 people, including 17 children, at a mosque near the Pakistani army's headquarters in Rawalpindi.

At least four attackers opened fire on worshippers during Friday prayers attended by many military staff in the garrison city.

Security forces fought back in an hour-long gun battle before three attackers blew themselves up, reports say.

The Pakistan Taliban later said they had carried out the strike.

Ten adult civilians were also among the dead, as well as military staff, the army said.

The Pakistani security forces have been attacked recently, and this attack has shown that the militants can still penetrate supposedly secure areas, says the BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad.

One witness told Pakistan's Dawn TV: "They attacked the mosque from the side ... the windows. They took the people, got hold of their hair, shot them.

Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said the latest attack had been co-ordinated. It ended once the military had made sure all the gunmen were dead, AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

Revenge motive?

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said explosions from at least one suicide bomber caused the roof of the building to collapse.

"They are taking revenge for the Pakistan army's successful operations in the Swat and Waziristan region," Mr Malik told the ARY television channel.

One witness, Nasir Ali Sheikh, told the BBC he had seen three attackers, one of whom threw hand grenades into the mosque.

He said two grenades had landed in the men's section of the mosque and one in the women's.

Other attackers were firing randomly in the Parade Lane mosque, said Nasir Ali Sheikh, adding that visitors had had to go through tight security, including metal detectors, to get inside the building.

"As soon as we finished prayers, I heard a blast and firing," witness Bakhtawar Hussain told Reuters.

He said he had seen wounded people lying in the courtyard of the mosque.

Police cordoned off the area around the mosque.

The mosque is a short distance from the army headquarters, in an area housing several offices of the defence establishment and the intelligence agencies.

Nineteen people were killed in an army base attack in Rawalpindi in October.

There has been a pattern of militant groups trying to attack security targets inside Pakistan recently as the army pursues an offensive against militants in South Waziristan.

A spokeswoman for the rescue services says another 32 were wounded in the attack.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle ripped through workers queuing for their salaries nearthe four-star Shalimar Hotel, killing 20 people as the United Nations pulled expatriate staff from the country's north-west.

''We were sitting on the second floor of our office. It was a huge blast,'' Raja Sher Ali, a marketing manager in a local company, said.

''Our building shook as if in an earthquake and when we came out there was smoke everywhere and body parts were thrown into our office.''

A surge in militant attacks left more than 300 people dead last month as the military pressed its offensive against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan movement in the tribal belt, where there are many al-Qaeda-linked operatives.

A senior police official said the suicide bomber drove a motorcycle towards the queue of people waiting for their salaries when he blew up.

Source: www.theage.com Suicide bike bomber kills workers

The twin blows to Pakistan eclipsed the military's announcement that troops had captured a key Taliban- held town as it stepped up a major offensive in the tribal belt and offered $ 5 million ( Rs 41 crore) for Taliban chiefs dead or alive.

Image From : Times Of India

Monday's attack, near army headquarters in Rawalpindi, turned another routine day into bloodshed for the second time in less than a week -- showing the enormity of the threat that al- Qaeda- linked militants pose in Pakistan.

The blast showered the area with pieces of flesh, smeared blood on the ground and shattered the windows of a multistorey block housing the bank and four- star Shalimar Hotel.

" Our building shook as if in an earthquake and when we came out, there was smoke everywhere and body parts were strewn in our office," said Raja Sher Ali, a marketing manager in a local company.

A senior police officer said the latest attack was the work of a suicide bomber, although rescue workers said the cause of the blast was still unclear.

The suicide bomber came on a motorcycle and blew up close to people gathered to collect their salaries. " We found parts of a suicide vest and some body parts of the suicide attacker," said senior police officer Aslam Tarin.

" Thirty- five people were killed and more than 60 were wounded," said information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira.

Four security personnel were among the dead and nine others wounded, the military said.

The attack took place near the upmarket Pearl Continental Hotel and Pakistan's army headquarters, where 10 gunmen kept up a nearly 24- hour siege last month that left 23 people dead and deeply embarrassed the military.

The plummeting security situation saw the UN announce on Monday it was pulling out international staff from northwest Pakistan, days after at least 118 people were slaughtered in a car bomb in its local capital Peshawar. " They will be relocated immediately," Ishrat Rizvi, a UN spokesperson said of the international workers in the area.

UN secretary general Ban Kimoon raised the security level to phase four in the North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which US officials say are hotbeds of militancy. " The decision has been taken bearing in mind the intense security situation in the region," the statement reads.

TWIN ASSAULT IN LAHORE
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a police checkpoint near bus terminals at the entrance to Lahore late on Monday, wounding seven people, a senior police officer said. The only casualties were the two bombers.

They struck after dark in the congested area on a link road to Pakistan's intercity motorway that dissects the country from the northwestern city of Peshawar to the capital Islamabad and east to Lahore.

" A car was stopped at the checkpost and the two suicide bombers in the car exploded themselves. We have found legs and a head," city police chief Pervez Rathor told reporters.

One warden and two constables were critically wounded and four civilians are also injured. " Bomb disposal staff are defusing remaining explosives in the car. Thank god no one died," Rathor added.

Geo TV showed security officers inspecting a small mangled car in front of a truck and a few other vehicles on a wide road where low concrete blast barriers were visible in front of the damaged car. There were small pieces of debris scattered across the road.

A surge in violence left more than 300 people dead last month as Pakistan presses a major offensive against the Tehreek- e- Taliban Pakistan in the tribal belt, where US officials say al- Qaeda are plotting attacks on the West.

Two suicide car bombs exploded in downtown Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 136 people and delivering a powerful blow to the heart of the fragile city's government in the worst attack of the year, officials said.

 Black smoke could be seen billowing from the frantic scene, as emergency service vehicles sped to the area. Even civilian cars were being commandeered to transport the wounded to hospitals.

"The walls collapsed and we had to run out,'' said Yasmeen Afdhal, 24, an employee of the Baghdad provincial administration, which was targeted by one of the car bombs. "There are many wounded, and I saw them being taken away. They were pulling victims out of the rubble, and rushing them to ambulances".

The car bombs, which targeted the justice ministry and the Baghdad provincial administration, come as Iraq is preparing for elections scheduled this January.

 There have been no claims of responsibility so far, but massive car bombs have been the hallmark of the Sunni insurgents seeking to overthrow the country's Shia-dominated government. At least 25 members of the Baghdad Provincial Council, which runs the city, were killed in the blast.

 The area where the blasts occurred is just a few hundred yards from the Green Zone that houses the US embassy as well as the PM's offices. The street where the blasts occurred had just been reopened to vehicle traffic a few months ago, in what was supposed to be a sign that safety was returning to the once devastated city.

The explosive-laden vehicles were sitting in parking garages next to the two government building, police said. "This is a political struggle, the price of which we are paying,'' said provincial council member Mohammed al-Rubaiey. "Every politician is responsible and even the government is responsible, as well as security leaders.''

The bombers forced their way into the university campus. While one suicide bomber blew himself up near the cafeteria in the girls' section, another blast occurred in the Shariah faculty in the boys' block.

Two female students were killed and about five injured in the girls' section and another four in the boys' block. Officials gave conflicting accounts of the blasts and casualties. But city police chief Tahir Alam said: "Both were suicide blasts."

According to initial information, two girl students have been killed," interior minister Rehman Malik said. Malik was booed and forced to return from the university with students shouting "shame, shame" while some even threw stones on his bulletproof car.

They blamed the minister for failure to ensure full security of the city and demanded his resignation.

"There was a big bang that damaged the building severely," university student Aleemullah said. Thirteen injured, 11 female students and two men, have been shifted to PIMS hospital where four are said to be in critical condition.

A suicide bomber killed seven commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and up to 42 other people on Sunday in an attack that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charged had been plotted from neighbouring Pakistan.

The attack took place in the city of Pisheen near the border with Pakistan in restive SistanBaluchestan province, which hosts a substantial Sunni population, local news agencies said.

Iran's parliament speaker said the United States was behind the attack while the Guards accused Western powers of carrying out the assault, the deadliest against them since a bombing in February 2007 in the same province killed 13 people.

"Based on the latest information... between 30 to 35 people, including military officers, tribal leaders and local citizens, have been martyred in the attack," Mohammad Marziah, chief prosecutor in the SistanBaluchestan provincial capital Zahedan, was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.

Marziah said Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of the shadowy Jundallah (Soldiers of God) Sunni group, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

"So far no one has been arrested, but terrorist Malek Rigi has accepted the responsibility for this terrorist attack," Marziah said. Iran's state broadcaster said the attack occurred in front of a local gymnasium in Pisheen.
Fars news agency said the bomber struck when Guard officers were meeting local leaders of the Shiite and Sunni communities. Some local tribal chiefs were among the dead, media reports said.

The official IRNA news agency said the suicide bomber "wearing an explosives vest blew himself up inside the meeting."

"The goal of the terrorists is to disturb the security of the Sistan-Baluchestan province," Speaker Ali Larijani said.

"It shows they do not want to have economic progress in this region. But certainly the Guards will act with more force to establish security in

The police have raided the ashram of a Hindu right- wing outfit, Sanatan Sanstha, and detained at least two of its officebearers in connection with the blast.

The Sanstha has been linked with terrorist activities in the past as well.

On Sunday, the state government also set up a special investigation team to probe the Friday night blast. But the Sanstha has denied playing a role in the incident. Leaders of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) have also backed the outfit.

A bomb meant to be placed among Diwali revellers went off on the scooter on which it was being carried around 10 pm in Margao, 30 km from state capital Panaji, on Friday. One of the bombers, Melgonda Patil, was killed, while Yogesh Naik was critically injured.

The duo was scootering around Goa in the evening, placing bombs. They dropped off three bombs in the vicinity of Margao, but got stuck in a traffic jam at a Diwali venue -- with the fourth bomb on them.

" Even before they could plant the explosive, it blew up, possibly on their lap," said state home minister Ravi Naik.

The police defused the bombs that had already been placed. Together, the explosives were meant to cause maximum casualties among the Diwali crowd that had gathered to participate in effigy- burning competitions -- a local tradition.

Patil, the police said, was a fulltime ` pracharak' of the Sanstha who contributed to its mouthpiece Sanatan Prabhat as well. Naik used to deliver milk at the Sanstha's ashram in Ramnathi, 20 km from Panaji. Hospital sources said on Sunday that Naik had succumbed to his injures, but the police maintained that he was alive.

A day earlier, the police raided the Ramnathi ashram and detained ashram manager Virendra Marathe and Prithviraj Hazare and the editor of Sanatan Prabhat for questioning.

The police have also sent a team to Sangli, from where Patil hailed, to investigate the Sanstha's ashram there.

The special investigation team formed by the Goa Police is being assisted by the Maharashtra antiterrorism squad ( ATS). The ATS has been investigating Sangh Parivar terrorists behind last year's Malegaon blasts as well as the 2006 Nanded explosion in which two Bajrang Dal activists were accidentally killed while making bombs.

Patil and Naik's links with Sanatan Sanstha have led to the speculation that the organisation was planning a major strike on Diwali eve. This could have set off a nationwide reaction against Muslims, as any such attack would normally be blamed on Muslim fundamentalists.

Home minister Naik categorically blamed the attack on Hindutva terrorists linked to the Sanatan Sanstha. " The scooter in which the explosives were ferried belongs to activists from the Sanatan Sanstha.

It seems to be a clear attempt to create communal discord in the state," he said.

B UT THE Sanstha distanced itself from the blast. " Within half an hour of the blast taking place, a minister in Goa claimed that our organisation was involved. We find this very wrong," spokesperson Abhay Vartak said. " When no investigation has taken place, how can our organisation be blamed?" Vartak suggested Patil could have been a victim of the bomb blast, rather than the perpetrator.

Former CM and BJP leader Manohar Parikkar also jumped to the defence of the Sanstha, claiming there was nothing to prove its involvement. " The role of Sanatan Sanstha is not proved. Let their involvement be proved and I will make a statement," he said.

Parikkar also refused to accept the emergence of Hindutva terrorism, saying: " A real Hindu cannot be a terrorist." Residents at the Sanstha's Ramnathi ashram say Patil went to the blast site from the ashram. " Patil was a regular visitor to the ashram but used to live elsewhere. However, he shifted to the ashram eight days before the incident," he said. Source: Mail Today Whiff of Hindutva Terror In Goa, Accidental Blast On Eve Of Diwali Defeats Plot To Incite Riots

The strikes come just days after the attempt by terrorists to storm the Pakistan army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi in which nine attackers and 14 security personnel and civilian employees of the armed forces were killed.

On Thursday, terrorists first struck in Kohat, a garrison city to the southeast of Peshawar. A lone suicide- bomber hit the boundary wall of a police station there with his explosive- laden van, resulting in the death of 13 people, including three policemen.

The incident took place at 8 am and the blast, caused by 100 kg of explosives, was so huge that " it turned half of the building of the police station into rubble," said a local journalist, who arrived at the scene within 15 minutes of the explosion.

One- and- a- half hours later, Lahore -- the capital of the Punjab province and the second largest city in Pakistan -- came under triple attack by nine terrorists who, firing indiscriminately and lobbing handgrenades, barged into three separate facilities being used by security agencies.

One of these was the provincial headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency ( FIA), the federal police that deals with terrorism. The second was the police training academy at Manawan and the third the Elite Police Training School on Bedian Road on the outskirts of the city.

Source: Mail Today Pakistan Reels Under Terror Blitz