Abdul Wahab

Incident Description: Suicide attack

On December 6, 2010, a reporter from Express News TV channel, Abdul Wahab, was among 50 killed in a suicide bombing in Mohmand's Ghalanai region, located inside Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack and termed it a reaction to the military operation in Mohmand's Tehsil Safi. Aside from Wahab, a reporter with the Daily Nawa-i-Waqt and Waqt News TV channel, Pervez Khan, was also killed in the blast and a journalist with NNI news agency, Mohib Ali, was injured.

The journalists were at the compound of the Ghalanai administrative office to cover the proceedings of a jirga, a council convened by local authorities, which was present at the location to discuss an anti-Taliban strategy. According to press reports, Wahab, 35, and Khan, 28, were present at the office of an assistant political agent when the two attackers detonated themselves in the midst of a large crowd of people that included tribal elders and community volunteers.

According to reports, the two bombers approached the office of Political Agent Amjad Ali Khan on motorbikes. The first bomber detonated inside the office, while the second one set off explosives when guards caught him in the compound of the office. Amjad Ali Khan, Political Agent and the top political official in Mohmand, at the time said the suicide bombers were dressed in paramilitary uniforms.

One of the reasons the attacks were so deadly, he said, was because the bombers had filled their suicide jackets with bullets. He said it was prayer time and some people had gone to the mosque, otherwise the casualty figure would have been much higher. The blast badly damaged the agency administration offices and adjacent buildings. Soon after the attack, heavy contingents of security forces and Khasadar Force personnel rushed to the site and cordoned off the area.

The injured were rushed to Agency Headquarter Hospital and to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. Wahab, a former general-secretary of Ghalanai Press Club, was survived by a widow and two daughters, whereas, Khan left behind a widow, two sons and two daughters. Journalist Ali was admitted to a hospital with injuries to his hand, abdomen and back.