Two bombs targeting police and workers from a nuclear facility killed three people and wounded scores more Thursday – latest attacks to hit Pakistan as it battles Taleban insurgents near the border with Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a prominent militant commander in the northwest reportedly agreed to halt attacks on security forces there, a move that could help the army in its efforts to eliminate the Taleban leadership in the region. An apparent suicide bomber riding a motorcycle rammed a bus carrying staff from the nuclear facility Khan Research Laboratory, in the latest bloody attack to blight the garrison city Rawalpindi. The blast ripped through a congested junction but police lowered the death toll from six to one in the densely populated city that headquarters Pakistan's powerful military and merges into the capital Islamabad. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but many recent bombings in Pakistan have been seen as attempts to avenge a two-month military offensive against the Taleban that has been welcomed by the government's US ally. “There was a deafening blast followed by a thick ball of fire and dust. I could only see a bus engulfed in flames. An AP reporter saw pieces of a charred motorbike lying on the ground, as well as a damaged bus, car and van. Shattered glass and twisted metal littered the road. Taxi driver Mohammed Ejaz said he saw a young man dressed with a black scarf around his neck revving his motorcycle on the side of the road. “Within moments he zigzagged his way to the bus, and then there was a huge explosion,” Ejaz said. The second attack took place near Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, where a roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded five more, police official Ghayoor Afridi said. Earlier in the day, Maulvi Nazir, a powerful militant chieftain in the frontier region of South Waziristan, declared a ceasefire against security forces, government official Syed Abdul Ghafoor Shah said. “This is a good sign for peace,” Shah said, adding that tribal elders would be responsible for ensuring peace in the area, which includes the region's main town of Wana.
