{"id":207,"date":"2010-01-02T12:43:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-02T12:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/?p=207"},"modified":"2010-01-02T12:43:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-02T12:43:00","slug":"pakistan-volleyball-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/?p=207","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan volleyball attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

The toll from a suicide attack on a volleyball match in north-west Pakistan has continued to rise, as rescuers searched for bodies at the scene.<\/strong>
\nNinety-three people are confirmed dead after the bombing in Lakki Marwat, and daylight has exposed the true horror, says a BBC correspondent.
\nPolice say old people and children were watching the game when the bomber drove his vehicle onto the field.
\nIt was the deadliest attack since a Peshawar bombing in October killed 120.
\nMore than 600 people have died in militant attacks in Pakistan since the beginning of October, most of them believed to be in reprisal for the Pakistan army’s new campaign against the Taliban.<\/p>\n

Unusual target<\/strong>
\nAn attack on a sporting event is unusual, and no group has admitted the blast, but analysts say that is not uncommon when large numbers of civilians are killed.
\nPolice say it may have been retaliation for attempts by Lakki Marwat residents to get rid of militants.
\n“Locals set up a militia and expelled the militants from this area. This attack seems to be a reaction to their expulsion,” district police chief Ayub Khan told AFP news agency.
\nThe BBC’s Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad that among those killed are believed to be members of a local peace committee who have been campaigning for an end to the violence.
\nMushtaq Marwat, a member of the group, told Pakistan’s Geo TV that the attack occurred as the committee was meeting in a nearby mosque.
\nBody parts remained strewn across the field on Saturday morning and emergency services were still searching the rubble of surrounding buildings destroyed in the attack.
\nOn Friday evening, one witness described people using vehicle headlights to search for victims in the dark.<\/p>\n

One man who was injured in the explosion said: “All the people had gathered together watching [the game], when suddenly a [Mitsubishi] Pajero came in the middle of the field and blew up.”
\n“Suddenly there was a huge blast. We went out and saw bodies and injured people everywhere,” he said.
\nThe military have been deployed to help local authorities with the clear-up operation.
\nLakki Marwat is near North and South Waziristan, which form a lethal militant belt from where insurgents have launched attacks across north-west Pakistan, as well as into parts of eastern Afghanistan.
\nOur correspondent says it had been feared that while the army was congratulating itself on its campaign, militants had simply escaped to neighbouring areas such as the one where Friday’s attack happened.
\nOn Saturday, security was beefed up as a precaution for a boxing tournament in Karachi, featuring teams from India and China.
\nA bombing that left at least 43 people dead at a Shia Muslim march in the city last Monday has been claimed by the Taliban.
\nA general strike was held in Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital, on Friday in protest at the attack, and the riots that followed.<\/p>\n

The Pakistani army’s operation in South Waziristan, which began in October, was billed as the turning point in the country’s fight against the Taliban.
\nThe military says things have gone extremely well, and that it now controls most of that former Taliban stronghold.
\nBut the period since the offensive started has coincided with a massive upsurge in militant attacks that has now claimed the lives of over 600 people right across the country.
\nThe government says the hitting of soft civilian targets, as the one in Lakki Marwat, is proof that the militants are getting desperate, and know the authorities have the upper hand. Most Pakistanis will be unconvinced of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The toll from a suicide attack on a volleyball match in north-west Pakistan has continued to rise, as rescuers searched for bodies at the scene. Ninety-three people are confirmed dead after the bombing in Lakki Marwat, and daylight has exposed the true horror, says a BBC correspondent. Police say old people and children were watching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208,"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mcccharity.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}