Suicide bombers target market in the city of Yola in Nigeria – 29 killed, 38 injured

A couple of suicide bombers blew themselves up in the main market of Yola city in Nigeria’s northeast and 29 persons were killed while another 38 were injured. Initial indications are that it was an attack by Boko Haram militants.
This has been reported in indianexpress.com dated 5 June 2015.

The injured are being treated in the hospitals in this city which is already overflowing with refugees from the conflict. The timing of the explosion coincided with the time when the merchants were downing the shutters and people were hurrying to make last-minute purchases while commuters were rushing to catch tricycle taxis to go home.
It was the first such attack on Yola and fingers of suspicion point at Boko Haram because two of the dead bodies were of the suicide bombers.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -

Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


Kolkata Police to send cake with birthday greetings to 12000 senior citizens of Pronam

Maggi 2-minute noodle – Madhuri Dixit, Amitabh Bachhan and Preity Zinta had endorsed the product

Bogus tour operator charged out-of-towners $200 each way for a trip that is free

WHO says cigarette smuggling into India has increased fourfold

Marvels of technology – robotic cheetah created by MIT, it can jump over obstacles

The power of tulsi leaves – it keeps at bay the pacemaker

US admits - there is no way to monitor online encrypted messages of ISIS

US Police have killed two persons daily in first 5-months of the year

Suicide car attack in Kabul by the Taliban kills one Briton

In a suicide car attack by the Taliban in Kabul on a British embassy vehicle, one Briton has been killed - he was one of the five who died in the attack. An Afghan national who was working for the embassy was also killed. This has been disclosed by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.
In addition, 33 others, most of them Afghan bystanders, suffered injuries when the suicide bomber rammed his explosives-packed car into the embassy’s four-wheel-drive. The injured are believed to include another Briton, a member of the security team, and five children.
According to a spokesman of the British embassy, the vehicle was not carrying British diplomats. The Taliban has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack – it has said that it "targeted foreign invading forces" and boasted that the attack has killed many foreigners.
The attack took place in eastern Kabul near the Green Village international zone and the blast had blown the roof of the 4X4 vehicle and destroyed at least four nearby cars.
The attacker was travelling in a Toyota Corolla car and has, since, been identified as an Afghan national. Reports are there of another large blast followed by gunfire in the central district of Wazir Akbar Khan – this locality is occupied by several embassies and foreign compounds. Details of fatalities are not known.
Incidentally, the majority of NATO troops positioned in Afghanistan would leave by the end of 2014 ahead of the official end of their combat role. The last of the British troops have already left in October after 13 years fighting the Taliban.
Obviously, the Afghan government would now have a difficult time to combat the threat of the Taliban and ensure, on their own, the safety of their citizens.

57 persons killed in Wagah Border suicide blast

It has been reported by Pakistani police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar that the latest death toll in the suicide blast at the Wagah order is 57 - the bomber had detonated explosives in a car park 500 metres (yards) from the border gates and parade ground even as hundreds of spectators were returning from the ceremony. Apparently, a suicide vest had been discovered in a nearby field fueling speculation that there could have been a second bomber.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (TTP-JA), a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility of the deadly suicide attack in which at least 57 people were killed and over 110 were injured. The TTP-Ja has directly threatened Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a twitter the TTP-JA has threatened through an open message to both governments across the border indicating that if there can be an attack on one side, there can be another on the other side.
Initially, there were conflicting versions of the tragic incident. The Pakistani and Indian agents are arch-rivals and do not share intelligence. From their accounts, it is not clear as to what the true intention of the bomber were. One line of thinking appears to be that the intention was to lead to more number of casualties on the Indian side of the border and, thereby, stir up tensions between the nuclear-armed nations.
It seems both the Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies had drawn up plans for an imminent strike on their Wagah land border before the suicide blast and increased level of security prevented what could possibly have been a more devastating attack.
Pakistani police are reported to have revealed that they had recovered a "huge" cache of weapons and explosives near the border, where thousands of people from both the sides gather at dusk every day to watch a flamboyant ritual parade by their security forces.