ISLAMABAD // At least 60 people were killed today in a twin suicide bombing at a military ordnance factory close to Islamabad, part of an upsurge in violence that comes as the government teeters on the brink of collapse. Two bombers blew themselves up at different gates of the factory in Wah, some 30km from the capital, just as hundreds of workers were pouring in and out for the afternoon change of shifts. It was perhaps the deadliest bombing in Pakistan since militants began a campaign of violence a year ago. Unofficial reports put the death toll at 60, with 100 wounded. Earlier this week, a bombing at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, in the north-west, killed 27. Pakistan's Taliban movement claimed responsibility for both bombings. Security was on high alert across Pakistan today. "This is an intensification [in the attacks]," said Talat Masood, a retired general who once headed the Wah ordnance factory. "They're trying to blackmail the government." The Wah arms manufacturing plant is the biggest ordnance manufacturing facility in Pakistan, and it is heavily guarded by the army. It should be one of the most well-protected places in Pakistan, raising the possibility that there was help from within the factory. Pakistani security forces are fighting militants in Bajaur, part of the country's tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan, and in Swat, a valley in the north-west. Separately, an inter-tribal conflict has erupted in Kurram, another part of the tribal territory, in which some 350 locals have died in the last two weeks. The Taliban said the factory bombing was in revenge for the offensive in Bajaur, where hundreds of insurgents are thought to have been killed. "If it [military operations] doesn't stop, we will continue such attacks," said Maulvi Omar, a Taliban spokesman. Militants appear to be exploiting the political vacuum in Pakistan. Elections in February brought to power a coalition government that has failed to gel and with continued infighting seems to have forgotten how to govern. The coalition was able to come together briefly in a move that ousted Pervez Musharraf as president on Monday this week but since then, the political parties have become deadlocked once again. There had been hope that the departure of Mr Musharraf, architect of Pakistan's role in the US-initiated "war on terror", may placate the extremists and also allow the administration to get on with the business of governing. The coalition had complained that interference by Mr Musharraf was hampering decision-making. "This is just barbaric," said Sadiq ul Farooq, a spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League-N, one of the two big parties in the coalition, reacting to the factory attack. "We have to devise a policy which is national, which protects and serves our own interests." While the other major party in the coalition, the Pakistan People's Party, has said the antiterror fight is "our war", the PML-N of Nawaz Sharif and most other political groupings in the country regard it as "America's war". Today, the coalition may finally collapse, as it is the self-imposed deadline for reaching an agreement on the reinstatement of the judges sacked by Mr Musharraf in November, which has become Pakistan's central political issue. Mr Sharif's party wants all the judges brought back, while the PPP is reluctant to reinstate deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, an activist judge who had held the executive to account. With the common enemy of Mr Musharraf gone, the parties are in danger of reverting to their historic roles, in which they were bitter rivals. There is intense speculation that the two sides will not be able to agree, which would push Mr Sharif out of the government. Mr Sharif has threatened to quit the coalition if the judges are not restored. "If the judges are not restored we will perhaps be forced to sit in the opposition," Mr Sharif said in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal today. "We will not try to bring the government down. But of course then we have no choice but to sit in the opposition," he said. The Pakistan People's Party would then have to call on other parties for support, to continue in government, including the MQM, which was closely allied to Mr Musharraf. There is also a rising expectation that the next president will be Asif Ali Zardari, a highly controversial figure who became leader of the PPP after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister. As the biggest party in the coalition, the presidency is in the gift of the party. It would mean a remarkable turnaround in the political fortunes of Mr Zardari, who was known in Pakistan as "Mr 10 per cent" for his alleged corruption during his wife's two terms in power. Mr Zardari has never been convicted on any of the dozens of criminal charges levelled against him over the years. When Bhutto returned to Pakistan from exile in October, Mr Zardari was still an unpopular figure in Pakistan and even within his own party. After her death, he came to Pakistan and quickly established an iron grip over the Pakistan People's Party, the country's most organised political machine. sshah@thenational.ae
