13 May 2011

Suicide attacks target Pakistan paramilitary base

10:25 pm on 13 May 2011

Twin bomb attacks on a paramilitary force academy in north-west Pakistan has killed at least 80 people.

Scores of people were injured in the blasts on Friday at the training centre for the Frontier Constabulary in Shabqadar, Charsadda district, the BBC reports.

The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the attacks to avenge the death of Osama Bin Laden and warned there would be more.

The al-Qaeda leader was killed during an American special forces raid in the northern Pakistani town of Abbottabad on 2 May.

Most of the dead are thought to be recent recruits to the paramilitary force, BBC reports.

Eyewitnesses say the recruits had been boarding vehicles to go on leave after completing their training when the two explosions happened.

Security forces have often been the targets of such attacks as they fight the Taliban across northwest Pakistan, but this is the deadliest attack this year.

There has also been speculation that militants would try to avenge the death of bin Laden.

The government and military are under pressure to explain how bin Laden lived undetected in Abbottabad, about a two-hour drive from intelligence headquarters in the capital Islamabad.

Pakistanis fear that more violence is to come.