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Police: Death toll rises to 17 in Pakistani court bombing Pakistani agents rescue abducted son of slain governor
(about 7 hours later)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The death toll in a suicide bombing at the entrance to a court building in northwestern Pakistan rose to 17 Tuesday, a police official said. QUETTA, Pakistan — Pakistani officials say security agents have rescued the son of a slain governor, abducted five years ago.
Two policemen, a policewoman and a child were among those killed in the blast on Monday in the town of Shabqadar in Charsadda district, said police official Ali Jan Khan. Baluchistan government spokesman Anwarul Haq Kakar said Tuesday that a joint operation in the Kuchlak area near Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, uncovered Shahbaz Taseer in a room.
He said that the death toll rose after six of the more than 20 people wounded died in hospitals overnight. Spokesman Wasay Khan of the paramilitary Frontier Corps says Taseer is safe and will be taken to the city of Lahore to be reunited with his family.
A group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban and calling itself Jamat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility, describing it as an attack on the judiciary which “gives verdicts against God’s divine laws.” Taseer, who is now 33 years old, was abducted eight month after his father, Gov. Salman Taseer was assassinated in Islamabad by his guard, Mumtaz Qadri, over accusations of blasphemy.
Ahrar’s spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said that the court bombing was in revenge for the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, who was executed last week for the 2011 killing of a provincial governor. Qadri was convicted of the killing and hanged last week in a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
The local Taliban branch and its allied militant groups have been waging a war against the state for over a decade, killing tens of thousands of people.
Charsadda district, where four suicide bombers from a Pakistani Taliban-linked group killed 21 students and teachers on Jan 20, is located at the edge of Pakistan’s tribal region, near the Afghan border.
Pakistan’s military says it has entered the final phase of an offensive against the militants in the tribal region.
Overnight airstrikes targeted several hideouts in the town of Shawal, killing 21 militants, according to a statement by the Pakistani army.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.