Graphic on the twin blasts in Pakistan. Suspected suicide bombings tore through a bus carrying Pakistani defence workers in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and a market minutes later, killing 25 people. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>

     ISLAMABAD, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Up to 25 innocent people were killed and another 68 were injured in two terrorist attacks in Rawalpindi near the capital on Tuesday, the spokesman for Pakistan's Interior Ministry Javed Iqbal Cheema said at a news briefing.

    Preliminary investigations and technical evidence indicated that both of the blasts occurred on Tuesday were suicide attacks, Cheema said, adding that the two suicide attacks were interlinked and act of the same network.

    Cheema confirmed that 25 people were killed and 68 others were injured in the two suicide attacks.

    The first blast took place in a bus, which was targeted at Qasim market in Rawalpindi, some 15 kilometers south of the capital Islamabad. The army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said the bus belonged to Ministry of Defense.

    Police officer Syed Murawat Ali Shah told reporters that someone threw a bomb into the bus and completely destroyed it.

    Cheema said the bus was used to carry civilian employees of different departments of the Ministry from their homes to offices and back. He said the army was not the target.

    Another blast happened in a car at R. A. Bazaar in the military area of the city less than 15 minutes after the first blast. R.A bazaar is located some 1.5 kilometers from the site of the first blast.

    An officer of the Federal Investigation Agency Deputy Commandant Liaquat Ali said preliminary probe suggested that both attacks were carried out by suicide bombers.

Pakistani security officials examine a bus which was destroyed in a suspected suicide attack in Rawalpindi. Two suicide bombings Tuesday ripped through a military bus and a market in Rawalpindi near the capital on Tuesday, killing 25 people.
(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>

    Superintendent Police Operation Yasin Farooq said that a motorcyclist exploded his motorcycle when the area was crowded.

    Cheema disclosed that the police had busted a conspiracy of five suicide bombers and planners and arrested them in Islamabad. A sixth member of the gang was caught along with a suicide jacket.

    Extremism and terrorism if not effectively checked would destroy the fabric of the society, Cheema said, adding that they had information that tentacles of the wave of terrorism extended to the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.

    He said the North West Frontier Province government would plug the loopholes that were used by terrorist elements to penetrate into settled areas for killing innocent people, and the Federal Government was assisting the provincial government in this regard.

    Cheema reiterated the unshakable resolve of the government to hunt terrorists down and bring them to justice with all force and means at its disposal. He said the government would use all options to establish its writ.

    He said the heinous acts underlined the need for an all-out collective national effort to tighten the noose and eliminate the menace of terrorism.

    Cheema said the federal and provincial governments and the law enforcement agencies were doing their utmost to overcome the despicable activities. In recent past timely detection of a number of plots by the intelligence agencies nipped the evil in the bud in several cases, saving precious lives.

Pakistani hospital workers attend to a man who was injured in a suspected suicide attack, at a hospital in Rawalpindi. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>

    He said it was vital that every patriotic citizen should perform national duty in this hour of need, remain vigilant and help the law enforcement agencies by reporting promptly to them if any suspicious elements or activities were spotted.

    President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz condemned the blasts and expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.

    Aziz said militancy and extremism were threats to the society and they needed to be resisted for the country's stability and better future. He added that investigation teams had started working to get clues about the perpetrators of heinous acts.

    The security in Islamabad was put on high alert after the two blasts on Tuesday. The law enforcement agencies imposed strict checking measures at every entry and exit point in the capital.

    The Pakistani government stormed the Lal Masjid, or red mosque in the capital in early July. Thereafter the militants in North Waziristan scrapped a peace deal with the government in mid-July and threatened to launch more attacks on security forces. Various attacks, most of which targeted security forces, occurred ever since, leaving hundreds of people dead.