Pakistan arsenal blast kills 80 people

Press, 12 April 1988, Page 10

Pakistan arsenal blast kills 80 people

NZPA-Reuter j i Islamabad < ■ \ ' I I i j j I" • I ’ ■ • ' •; • B Missiles from an exploding army arsenal hit houses, shops and cars in Islamabad and Rawalpindi on Sunddy, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 850. i ;

Hundreds of missiles, grenades, rockets and shells rained on { jthe streets in an hour-long barrage. Men, women and Children were blown: to pieces as they fled ■ for their lives. Missiles flew in i all directions — as if someone had tosSfed a match into a giant box of fireworks — after { trie weapons dump blew up at Ojri army camp halfway between the two cities. Some of the projectiles travelled 10km before {crashing down on buildings and people. ; | {

The Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, ; Wasim Sajjad, told Parliajment the arms dump exploded after an ammuniI tion lorry accidentally {caught fire. I {

Government officials {and doctors said the death toll was certain to {rise, j Many of the wounded

were in critical condition and residents said dozens of people were still unaccounted for. . !The Government ordered three days of national mourning and President Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq cut short a visit to Kuwait to rush home to his capital, parts of which looked like a war zone.

The missiles demolished or damaged hundreds of houses and offices and started a chain of fires. Some were still burning 10 hours after the dump exploded. Thousands of people fled in panic as explosions rocked the twin cities,, which have a combined 1 population of more than one million. Some sought sanctuary in a water tunnel, others in a graveyard. Khaqan Abbasi, { a friend of President Zia, member of Parliament

and : former Government Minister, was killed when a !missile hit his' car. Rockets also fell near the United States Embassy, a United States Information Sendee centre, and an American school,; but caused no damage.; - Witnesses said dozens of Air Force jets scrambled to ■ take off from the airport as rockets crashed into the area. A ; piece of shrapnel smashed into a building at Islamabad airport, suspending operations for an hour.

“We thought that war had broken out,” one of a group of survivors near the camp said. Hospitals said most of the casualties were caused by the missiles and one doctor said, “Some 1 i bodies were brought in three or four pieces.”

There was no word of how many people were

killed at Ojri but a lieutenant outside the camp, which; was sealed off by troops, told reporters, "Thank God there weren’t many casualties -at the camp.” {

He said he did not know what types of weapons were stored at Ojri.; The Pakistan Army’s weapons include United States-sup-plied anti-tank Cobra and Tow missiles and ; shoul-der-fired anti-aircraft Stinger missiles. Many unexploded rockets littering open spaces were up to 2m long.

Hazar Khan Bijarani, a Senator, told reporters: "People walking on roads ran for shelter as bombs fell : and exploded on houses, schools, roads, streets and Government offices.”

Ojri is an old army camp near farmland separating the modem

capital and the sprawling old city of Rawalpindi. The Prime Minister, Mohammad Khan Junejo ordered an immediate inquiry into the destruction of the dump which was established by Britain before the partition of India in 1947. He said on television he had ordered authorities to prepare a plan to shift all ammunition depots from populated areas. Many Pakistani towns have military areas containing arms depots. / Pakistan’s main Opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, now in London, blamed authorities for the explosion. “Those who kept the ammunition dump in a thickly populated area are responsible for this devastation,”! said a statement for her issued by her Pakistan People’s Party.