Pakistan Closes Schools, Colleges After Twin Bombings (Update2)

are all closed” following the bombings that killed five people at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, said Atiq-ur- Rehman, a spokesman for the Education Ministry . Schools and colleges run by provincial administrations and private institutions “have independently taken the decision” not to open, he said in a phone interview. While no group has claimed responsibility for the university attack, “the closing of schools is very big in drawing public attention to the costs we Pakistanis are paying because of the militants,” said Saifullah Khan Mehsud , a political analyst at an Islamabad think-tank. “This is the first time that all of Pakistan’s people are being so directly affected” by a terrorist attack, said Khan, whose FATA Research Center studies Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Taliban’s stronghold. About 81 percent of Pakistanis surveyed in May said the Taliban and other Islamic militants are a critical threat to Pakistan, up from 34 percent in late 2007, said a poll published by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes . “The tactics and undemocratic bent of militant Groups” have “turned Pakistanis against them,” said Clay Ramsay, the poll’s research director, in a statement published with the survey in July. twin blasts The Islamabad university attack came as the army pressed its largest offensive against Taliban militants in the tribal zone, adjacent to the Afghan border. Pakistan is in a “state of war,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said as he visited students wounded in the bombing, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported. The benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index sank 321.28, or 3.4 percent, to 9,247.78. The gauge was the biggest loser among 90 major global Indexes tracked by Bloomberg as concerns grew militants may launch more attacks as the army continues its offensive. While Islamic extremists have bombed many foreign and Pakistani institutions in recent years, yesterday’s attack was the first at a major university amid the jihadists’ battle with the state. The sprawling government-run university has 18,000 students, 1,500 of them foreign. Mehsud Group The bombings targeted a cafeteria used by women students and a men’s hostel, Islamabad’s chief of police, Bin Yamin , said in an interview. The twin blasts, which came within minutes of each other, killed three women and two men, APP reported. The bombing comes after months in which “the Taliban have been shooting themselves in the foot,” FATA Research’s Mehsud said, notably with attacks that have killed civilians in public places. A car bombing in a main bazaar of the northwestern city of Peshawar killed more than 50 people on Oct. 9. As many as 28,000 soldiers in three columns entered the mountainous jihadist stronghold of South Waziristan at the weekend after seven terrorist attacks in a week killed about 150 people. They are seeking to destroy the Taliban faction that was led by Baitullah Mehsud until his death in a U.S. missile strike in August. Pakistan blames the group for 80 percent of terrorist attacks in the country and the army offensive has triggered concern of retaliatory bombings. Journalists Barred The army said today in a statement it had killed 15 militants in South Waziristan in the past 24 hours, while three soldiers died. Troops were involved in an “intense encounter” around the town of Kotkai, home to top Taliban commanders, it said. Accounts of fighting can’t be confirmed as foreigners are banned from tribal areas and local reporters have been forced out by the government and Taliban. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is “encouraged” by the army offensive in a region the Taliban used as a base to attack American troops across the border in Afghanistan. “The terrorist attacks that have been launched inside Pakistan in recent days made clear the need to begin to deal with this problem,” Gates told reporters yesterday en route to meetings in Tokyo. “We obviously are very supportive of what the Pakistanis are doing. But it’s very early yet.” The Waziristan offensive is Pakistan’s biggest against the Taliban and its allies, who have mounted increasing attacks on government targets since mid-2007 including this month’s assault on the army’s headquarters. The military has said it expects to complete the offensive in six to eight weeks. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: October 21, 2009 07:15 EDT