A suicide bomber driving a motorized rickshaw blew himself up at a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan Saturday, officials said, killing at least 13 people and injuring 52 while the death toll in Friday's blasts in Lahore rose to 57. The blast in Saidu Sharif took place outside the District Courts, police said adding the suicide bomber was heading toward a security checkpost. He detonated the bomb as as security official opened fire on him. According to police, the body parts of the bomber including head and legs have been found. At least 14 kilograms of explosive material was used in the hit. Soon after the blast, a curfew was clamped on the main road and the injured people were rushed to hospitals. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, though suspicion quickly fell on the loose network of insurgents who have been laying siege to the US-allied Islamabad government for years and who have stepped up attacks against security forces in recent days. Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, a top military official for the region, said Saturday's attack killed 13 people, including two soldiers and two policemen. “Such acts cannot demoralize us. I want to assure the people of Swat that we will continue fighting till the last Taliban are eliminated,” he said. The attacker, driving a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, detonated explosives at a roadblock manned by soldiers and police, said police official Qazi Farooq. The explosion sparked panic in the neighborhood, as soldiers in battle gear carried the victims - injured and dead - through the narrow streets to get them help. Speaking from his hospital bed, Zia-ur-Rehman said he was traveling in another rickshaw when the blast shook the street and violently jolted his vehicle. “I thought somebody picked me up and then threw me down,” said the 24-year-old, who was covered with cuts and bruises. “Everybody was crying.” The Pakistani military launched a major offensive in Swat early last year after the collapse of peace talks with local Taliban, who at the time controlled much of the valley. The military took back control of the valley by mid-2009, but sporadic violence has continued. In Lahore, meanwhile, funerals were being held Saturday for the dozens of people killed the day before.
