Islamabad - Six people, including two female students, were killed and many more wounded Tuesday when two suicide bombers struck an Islamic university in Pakistan's capital, officials said. The successive bombings came as government forces pressed ahead with a crucial offensive against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in lawless tribal district South Waziristan. Twelve insurgents and four soldiers died in the recent clashes.
Two suicide bombers struck separately in a cafeteria for women and an academic block for men at the International Islamic University, where foreign students are also enrolled.
"Among the six people killed in the attack, two are females, two males and the remaining two are suicide bombers," Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters outside the hospital.
Up to 29 students, mostly girls, were admitted to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, where doctors described the condition of five victims as critical.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Malik directly blamed the Taliban militants. The suicide bombers were on foot.
"These people (Taliban) who call themselves the well-wishers of Islam have today struck the Islamic university, proving they are neither friends of Islam nor Pakistan," he said.
Law enforcement agencies have been bracing for militant attacks, and many educational institutions across Pakistan were temporarily closed at the start of this week amid terrorist threats.
Tuesday's twin bombings were the latest in a string of attacks that have taken place across Pakistan in the past two weeks, beginning October 5 when a suicide bomber struck the offices of the United Nations World Food Programme, killing five people.
Malik said in all the assaults, "roads were leading towards South Waziristan and North Waziristan (two militancy-riddled tribal districts)."
More than 30,000 foot soldiers launched the offensive, codenamed Path to Deliverance, early Saturday to take out the Taliban and al-Qaeda network in the tribal badlands near the Afghan border.
Rough estimates put the number of Taliban fighters in the region at around 10,000, with an al-Qaeda segment of up to 1,500 men, mostly Uzbeks and Arabs.
The security forces are slowly converging on Makeen, the base of slain Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and thousands of his loyalists. Mehsud was killed by missiles fired from a US drone in the same area on August 5.
Defence analysts say the Waziristan offensive is a decisive test for the Pakistani military, which had made at least three attempts since 2004 to oust the Taliban from the rugged territory but failed.
The current onslaught and has drawn appreciation from Washington.
"I'm obviously encouraged by the Pakistani operations," US Secretary of Defence Rober Gates told reporters on Tuesday en route to meetings in Tokyo.
The United States has long been pressuring Pakistan to take act against Taliban sanctuaries in Waziristan as they are used to mount cross-border attacks on the Western forces in Afghanistan.
The UN refugee agency warned Tuesday of a refugee crisis due to Waziristan assault.
"At the moment, it is not a disaster but an emergency we need to respond to, and the UNHCR is prepared to do so," Ariane Rummery, a spokeswoman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told the German Press Agency dpa.
She said the government had registered 4,500 refugee families, or 32,000 people, since October 13. They joined 80,000 people who had already fled the region since May when the government announced it would launch an offensive in South Waziristan.
"So altogether, at this stage, there are about 112,000 registered refugees from South Waziristan," Rummery said.
She said no refugee camps have been established for the uprooted people because many were staying with relatives or in rented accommodation in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, cities that adjoin the district.
