Bombs kill dozens at 2 sites in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police recruitment center close to Pakistan's volatile tribal region yesterday, killing at least 26 people, injuring nearly 60 others, and bringing the death toll in weekend attacks in the frontier zone to more than 70.

The surge in violence comes on the heels of last week's government storming of a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad, a clash that left more than 100 people dead and raised the specter of a full-blown war between Islamic militants and the government of President Pervez Musharraf.

Adding to the likelihood of a prolonged period of strife, militants in North Waziristan, one of the tribal areas, announced yesterday that they were annulling a 10-month-old cease-fire accord with the government. That deal had been in tatters, and had been widely criticized since its inception, but the insurgents' decision to scrap it indicated they wanted no impediment to an all-out fight with government forces.

The turmoil has raised speculation that Musharraf, who also is the chief of Pakistan's military, might choose to cite the growing threat posed by militants as a justification for declaring a state of emergency and putting off elections scheduled for later this year.

Before the mosque raid, Musharraf had been under heavy pressure from a grass-roots pro democracy movement to renounce his army post and allow free and fair balloting. But public sentiment generally supported his decision to use force against those holed up inside the mosque, which had become the center of a vigilante-style anti vice campaign.

That support has given Musharraf something of a respite from the previous political crisis, but it also has plunged him into what is shaping up as the most serious confrontation in years with militant groups, who have enjoyed longtime patronage from Pakistan's intelligence establishment.

Islamic insurgent groups, many of them based in the little-governed region bordering Afghanistan, have vowed to avenge the assault on the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid. But the frontier zone has long been the focus of US intelligence concerns about the regrouping and rearming of elements of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The attack on the recruitment center occurred in Dera Ismail Khan, which is adjacent to the South Waziristan tribal region, also a militant stronghold. The police are in the midst of a recruiting drive, and witnesses said the center was packed with job applicants taking written examinations and having medical checkups.

Trouble had been expected in Dera Ismail Khan, where three would-be suicide bombers were arrested Friday. Authorities also seized an explosives-laden car.

The explosion left the recruiting center's main reception area full of charred corpses. About half the dead were police officers and the remainder new recruits, authorities said.

Militants issued fresh threats yesterday against police in the tribal areas, ordering them not to cooperate with thousands of army and paramilitary forces deployed in the border zone after the Red Mosque raid. Hours before the attack on the recruitment center, militants staged a sophisticated, multipronged assault on a military convoy traveling in the rugged, mountainous district of Swat, which lies within Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.

The convoy was hit near the town of Matta by two suicide bombers and a roadside bomb, military officials said. At least 18 people were killed and 48 hurt, including about seven civilians.

Until recently, Swat had been relatively quiet, but it was known to be a base for forces aligned with a prominent militant leader, Mullah Fazullah. Fazullah, speaking yesterday on an illegally operated radio station, said he was going into hiding. After the Red Mosque raid, he called on followers to wage war against the government.

Yesterday's convoy attack was the second in as many days in the frontier zone. On Saturday, at least 26 soldiers were killed and more than 50 hurt in a suicide attack on their convoy north of Miram Shah, the main town in the tribal area of North Waziristan.