AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI Index: ASA 33/010/2009

28^thOctober 2009

Pakistan: Amnesty International condemns today’s deadly bombing in Peshawar

At least 80 civilians were killed and 200 injured when a car bomb exploded in the busy Peepal Market in the city of Peshawar on Wednesday, media reports say. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

Amnesty International reiterates that the targeting of civilians cannot be condoned under any circumstances. All groups must renounce such attacks which flout the most basic principles of international law.

At least 200 people have been killed in similar attacks across Pakistan in recent weeks, according to media reports.

Amnesty International last week called on the Pakistani army to stop harassing and targeting members of Mehsud tribe, the countries North West Frontier Province.

The Pakistani military has prevented members of the tribe to use major roads to flee the conflict zone, presumably because some of the tribe’s members are involved in the senior leadership of the Pakistani Taleban witnesses told Amnesty International,

Amnesty International has also called on the government of Pakistan to do much more to meet the humanitarian needs of hundreds of thousands of civilians who are displaced due to military operations in Pakistan's tribal belt against Taleban militants and other insurgent groups.

END/

Public Document

****************************************

For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: press@amnesty.org

International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK www.amnesty.org