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Bomb Attack On Pakistani Court Leaves Dozens Of Casualties


Pakistani police officials inspect the site of a suicide bomb attack at a district court in Mardan on September 2.
Pakistani police officials inspect the site of a suicide bomb attack at a district court in Mardan on September 2.

At least 10 people were killed and 40 wounded in a bomb attack on a district court in northwestern Pakistan.

An official said on September 2 that at least two lawyers, two police officers, and three passersby were killed in the attack, which took place in the town of Mardan.

Reports say the attacker first threw a grenade at the court entrance and then blew himself up at the main gate.

Some of the wounded are reportedly in critical condition.

A spokesman for the extremist Muslim group Jamat ul-Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mardan city police official Faisal Shahzad described the attack to Radio Mashaal.

"He was a suicide attacker and was wearing 6-8 kilograms of [explosives on his] suicide belt," Shahzad said. "He was intercepted by police at the walk-through gate of the session courts...[and] threw a hand-grenade at the policemen, who [were] injured in the blast. The injured policemen opened fire and chased him."

He said one policeman shot him dead and that the attacker's suicide belt exploded at that time.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

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