2nd Blast This Week Kills 3 In Pakistan

Bomb Rips Through Video Store In Volatile Border Region Days After Blast At Danish Embassy

(CBS/ AP)  A bomb explosion ripped through a video shop in a business center of northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding three more, police said.

The blast came as investigators probed who was behind a car bomb that exploded just outside the Danish embassy earlier this week. It could add to concern that Pakistan's efforts to strike peace deals with militants are failing to end violence.

Local police chief Abdul Rauf said the latest attack happened in the town of Kohat, about 45 miles south of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan. He said the dead and injured were taken to a hospital.

The blast also damaged other video and CD stores nearby.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but previous bombings in this volatile region have been blamed on pro-Taliban militants who consider music and movies un-Islamic. Just weeks ago, suspected militants sent letters to shop owners in Kohat and elsewhere in the region, warning them to close their businesses.

The U.S. has expressed concerns that the two-month-old Pakistani government's efforts to negotiate with some armed groups in the northwest could give hard-liners time to regroup and intensify attacks on U.S. forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Defying the pressure from the West, the Pakistani government has defended the peace agreement as a necessary step to end more than five years of intense fighting between Pakistani troops and militants, said CBS News' Farhan Bokhari.

"This blast has once again demonstrated that any conciliation towards these militants will not bring peace" a senior Western diplomat told CBS News Monday after the attack on the Danish embassy. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic.

The government has insisted it will not negotiate with "terrorists" but only Pakistani militants willing to lay down their arms.

Danish investigators have said al Qaeda or an affiliated group was likely behind Monday's blast outside their embassy in the usually tranquil capital.

The terror network has threatened Denmark over the reprinting in Danish papers of a cartoon that depicted Islam's Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

Investigators believe it was a suicide bombing.

Many suicide bombings in Pakistan are believed to have been planned in its semiautonomous tribal regions along the Afghan border, where al Qaeda and Taliban militants have found sanctuary and which are the focus of peace efforts.

Pakistan's umbrella Taliban movement, headed by Baitullah Mehsud of the South Waziristan tribal region, has declared a cease-fire amid the negotiations.

Violence in Pakistan is down markedly, even though bombings and attacks in the northwest and other parts of the country have continued.

A senior Pakistani security official, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, told Bokhari on Monday that intelligence officials had received information during the past month that a series of new attacks was being planned by militants opposed to the new peace deal with Mehsud.

"The attacks are meant to lift the divisions in Mehsud's camp and bring them out in the open," said the official.

NATO, meanwhile, has reported a surge in attacks on its troops in eastern Afghanistan, saying it suspects the rise is a result of the peace talks across the border.

[floydzeppl]

The christian religion is hard to follow. It''s wrong for homosexuals to do it unless its a Pastor likeTed Haggard. Adultery is bad but 45-year-old-men doinking 12-year-old girls on Texas Compounds is ok. Murder is usually ok is its done in a women''s health clinic bombing to protect the rights of a fetus. Science and Technology are good when they make cell phones and big screen TVs for the Sunday Sermon at the MegaChurch but bad when it talks about stem cells and Evolution.

Posted by downsteamjim at 09:47 AM : Jun 04, 2008

[dobbershome]

Another peaceful message brought to you by the most peaceful religion in the world.

[downsteamjim]

The muslim religion is hard to follow. It''s wrong to damage the Quran unless it''s done when blowing up a mosque. Murder is usually ok. Video and music are wrong but the internet is okay. I would like to see Muhammed''s writing on technology.

[downsteamjim]

To oledakota: That''s where the word ''thug'' comes from. Suprisingly, they weren''t muslims.

[petro49l]

Bin Laden is a blatant homosexual who is responsible for wanton destruction of property. He resorts to any level of murder. Felons who are free to commit any act of crime should receive the maximum scrutiny. Pakistan must use every resource to apprehend Al Qada and Taliban.

[aztecdakota]

Back in History, wasn''t there a religious group somewhere near India, that killed for the love of killing? Worshipped a god called Kali? Weren''t they called Tuggs, or Tuggies? Is this present murderous group the same ones, or a branch thereof??