Suspected US missiles killed three people in a Taliban-riddled northwest region yesterday, as Pakistanis reeled from a day's worth of bombings that killed at least 59. Twin bomb blasts tore through a busy market in Pakistan's second city of Lahore early yesterday, killing 36 people and wounding scores more.
Another 10 people were killed by a suicide bomber in the northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar, which has borne the brunt of Taliban attacks.
The latest alleged American missiles hit a car carrying three people in a village near the town of Mir Ali, in the North Waziristan tribal region, intelligence officials said.
Pakistan protests against the missile strikes as violations of sovereignty, but many analysts believe it secretly aids them.
The popular Moon Market in the centre of Lahore was transformed into flames and rubble when two bombs exploded 30 seconds apart outside a police station and a bank.
He put the number of wounded at 95.
Lahore police chief Muhammad Pervez Rathore put the death toll slightly lower, while bodies were still being pulled from the rubble.
"Twenty-seven people are confirmed dead but the death toll may rise. A total of 137 people were injured," he said. "The blasts knocked out the electricity. Fire engulfed the whole of the market. We fear there are still bodies inside."
In Peshawar, a suicide bomber in a rickshaw approached a district courthouse and blew himself up, killing 10 people. "He got down and tried to enter the building but could not do so because of our security arrangements," said Bashir Bilor, a senior provincial minister.
The bomber detonated about 6kg of explosives, killing 10 people, including a policeman, and wounding 44 others, said Zafar Iqbal, a doctor at Peshawar's Lady Reading hospital.
"I was sitting outside the court when I heard a deafening blast," lawyer Rashid Hussain said.
"I rushed to the spot and saw dead and injured lying on the ground. It was really horrible; there were body parts and the injured were crying for help."
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned both bombings, deploring "the loss of innocent lives", a statement said.
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