Suicide bombers could target National Games in Pakistan: Intelligence report

Authorities in Pakistan's northwest today further heightened security arrangements after receiving an intelligence report that two would-be suicide bombers with explosives-laden vehicles could target athletes participating in the National Games.

The alert from the intelligence agencies said the would-be suicide attackers had entered Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, where the Games began yesterday, official sources said.

The would-be bombers could target athletes or the Qayyum Sports Complex, where some of the events of the National Games are being held, the intelligence report said.

The alert came a day after a woman suicide bomber blew herself up near a UN aid distribution centre in the restive tribal belt, killing 46 people.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani skipped the inauguration ceremony of the games yesterday despite extraordinary security measures put in place for the event.

Police have barricaded many roads and diverted traffic away from the venues of the games.

The games were postponed twice during the past two years due to security concerns linked to militant attacks and operations being conducted by the army in several areas of northwest Pakistan.

In a separate development, Pakistani security forces today destroyed nearly half a tonne of explosives seized from a car at Hangu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, officials said.

A bomb disposal squad destroyed 420 kg of explosives in an open field in Doaba area of Hangu district, police official Asadullah said.

The explosives were destroyed in four controlled explosions, he said.