1 killed in suicide attack on Ahmedi mosque in Pak
One person was killed and two others were injured when a suicide bomber targeted an Ahmedi mosque at Mardan in northwest Pakistan on Friday, hours after a policeman was killed by a roadside bomb on the outskirts of this restive city. The suicide attacker tried to storm the mosque of the minority sect at Muslimabad on Canal Road, a posh area of Mardan city, but was stopped by volunteers, witnesses told TV news channels. The bomber then detonated his explosive vest. "The bomber targeted the worship place of the Ahmedis at Muslimabad on Canal Road. We have found the head of the bomber," Mardan Commissioner Akbar Khan told PTI. The Muslimabad area has a sizable Ahmedi population. Earlier in the day, militants targeted a police van with a roadside bomb on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing a constable and injuring three others. The van was on a routine patrol near the Khyber tribal region when the remote controlled explosive device planted along the Ring Road went off this morning. Four policemen were wounded and one of them later succumbed to his injuries in hospital. Officials described the condition of one of the injured policemen as serious. Police sealed off the site of the blast and launched a search for the attackers. No group claimed responsibility for both attacks. The attack on the Ahmedi mosque came two days after a Shia procession in Lahore was targeted by two suicide bombers. Thirty-nine people were killed and nearly 300 injured in that attack. In May, 95 people were killed when suicide attackers stormed two Ahmedi mosques in Lahore. While Ahmedis consider themselves Muslim, they were declared non-Muslims through a constitutional amendment in 1974. A decade later, they were legally barred from proselytising or identifying themselves as Muslims in Pakistan. Some 1.5 million Ahmedis live across the country.
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