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AFP
TANGI
AT LEAST seven were killed when multiple Taliban suicide bombers attacked a court complex in northern Pakistan on Tuesday, the latest in a series of assaults which have raised fears militants are regrouping.
One bomber was briefly on the loose inside the busy complex in the Tangi area of Charsadda district but was killed by police some 20 minutes after the attack began, officials said.
A 2nd bomber was shot dead by security forces and a third died when he detonated his vest outside the main gates of the facility in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to police.
The attack was claimed by the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) faction of the Pakistani Taliban, which carried out a series of apparently coordinated assaults last week including a powerful bomb blast in Lahore which killed 14 people.
Earlier this month the group vowed a fresh offensive on targets in Pakistan including the judiciary.
"So far seven people have been killed and 15 wounded,"Suhail Khalid, district police chief, told AFP, adding that a lawyer was among the dead.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office condemned the latest assault.
"We are a steadfast nation and will not be deterred by such attacks. Our government will continue to fight against terrorist elements and we will succeed,"a statement said.
The three attackers had opened fire on police and thrown grenades as they tried to battle their way into the complex, Khalid said.
"Bomb disposal experts told us that each bomber was wearing seven to eight kilogrammes of explosives,"he told reporters.
Hundreds of people including lawyers, judges and citizens normally attend the court complex.
An AFP reporter at the scene said the area was littered with human remains, while a pile of law books stained with blood and riddled with bullets lay strewn outside an office.
Police scoured the area for evidence as military helicopters whirred overhead. An old man whose four-year-old grandson died in the attack wept.
Another man who witnessed the attack, Muhammad Hussain, said he was about to enter the complex when he heard the blast.
"When I looked up I saw three armed men, hurling grenades and opening fire,"he said, adding he sought shelter in a nearby police barracks from where he heard the gunbattle.
"This continued for some minutes and then I heard another big bang. Some minutes after a policemen told me that it's all over."
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22/02/2017
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