ISLAMABAD, Oct 15 – A wave of suicide bombings, commando-style raids and other attacks blamed on Islamist extremists in Pakistan over the past two years have sharply escalated in the past 11 days with eight bloody attacks:
October 15: Gunmen attack three police buildings simultaneously in the eastern city of Lahore. Police say 11 people — six security officials and five attackers — are killed.
October 15: At least eight people are killed when a suicide car bomb explodes near a police station in the northwestern town of Kohat, police say.
October 12: A suicide bomber rips through a market as a paramilitary convoy passes in Shangla, a district neighbouring the northwest Swat valley and the target of a recent anti-Taliban offensive. About 45 people, mainly civilians, are killed. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claims responsibility.
October 10/11: Ten militants stage an audacious attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi, the garrison town adjoining Islamabad, with 23 people killed and 39 hostages freed by troops. The dead included 11 troops, three hostages and nine attackers. TTP claims responsibility.
October 9: A suicide car bomber kills 52 civilians and wounds more than 100 in a crowded market in northwest city Peshawar. It is the sixth attack in four months in the city, near the tribal belt on the Afghan border where tens of thousands have fled a feared offensive against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
October 5: Five UN World Food Programme workers are killed when a suicide bomber walks into their office in Islamabad and blows himself up, dressed in military uniform. Four Pakistani workers and one Iraqi are among the dead. The TTP claims responsibility for the attack.
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