Pakistan blasts blamed on agents

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 26

Pakistan blasts blamed on agents

NZPA-AP Islamabad A bomb that shattered a small hotel today hear Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, injuring at least 12 people, was Soviet-made and had been planted by the Afghan secret service, a senior policenaan said. The bombing was the second in three days in Peshawar, about 80 kilometres from the Afghan border.

The Provincial Police Chief, Abbas Khan, said the bomb was a Sovietmade device .weighing 1 kilogram. The bombing, along with other recent attacks in Peshawar, was the work of Khad, the Afghan secret service, Mr Khan said.

The communist regime of Afghanistan was mounting a terror campaign against Pakistan, but the Pakistani Government and the police would stem it by sealing the border to prevent Afghan agents from crossing over, he said.

The bomb started a fire that destroyed the mud and wood hotel, which

was a cheap hostel used by poor workers, the police said. The bombing followed a blast on Thursday in which the Peshawar office of Pakistan International Airlines was demolished, killing three people and injuring 29. The bomb that destroyed the airline office was a powerful, professionallymade device that tore the building apart, the police said.

Peshawar has been hit by a wave of bombings in recent months. A bomb destroyed a butcher’s shop last week, killing one person and injuring 15 others.

The city is the headquarters for Afghan guerrilla groups fighting the communist Government of Afghanistan.

Pakistan allows the Afghan guerrillas to work from its territory and some sources have said that the bombings are part of an attempt by the Afghan regime to force the Pakistani Government to end its support for the insurgents.