ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber struck near the naval headquarters Islamabad on Wednesday, police said, killing a navy official.
The attacker walked up to a checkpoint at the entrance to the complex and detonated his explosives when challenged by security forces, scattering bits of flesh across a busy road in central Islamabad, police and witnesses said.
‘The bomber was about 17 to 18 years old. He was wearing a suicide jacket. He came to the gate and tried to enter the complex,’ Fazeel Asghar, Islamabad’s top administration official, told reporters.
‘Security officials checked him and one navy police constable, Mohammad Ashraf, asked him to take off his coat. The bomber then blew himself up and the navy constable died in the blast,’ he said.
Two other navy personnel were critically wounded, he added.
Witnesses described the scene in the aftermath of the blast.
‘I was in a nearby street when I heard a loud explosion,’ said witness Imtiaz Ali.
‘When I reached the main Margalla Road there was smoke near the navy complex. I saw three soldiers lying wounded.’
Navy officials were seen rushing towards the gate. Two ambulances reached the blast site and shifted the injured to the navy hospital inside the complex.
The windows of several cars were shattered in the powerful blast, and police sealed the road and diverted traffic.
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