Covered from head to foot
in padded protective gear, but with his extremities still dangerously exposed,
this Afghan bomb disposal expert took his life in his hands to defuse this
suicide bomber's explosive vest. Security forces captured the would-be martyr
before he blew himself up in Jalalabad earlier today, hog-tying the man to stop
him detonating the device. But before the suspected terrorist could be taken in
for interrogation, the bomb squad had to be called in for the risky job of
disarming the bomb strapped across his chest. One hundred miles down the Khyber
Pass, in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, 17 people were not so lucky.
A car bomb exploded there
as a convoy of paramilitary troops passed through the outskirts of the city,
killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens of others.
It was one of three blasts
which killed at least 43 people in different parts of Pakistan today, just as
David Cameron visited the country's capital pledging help to fight extremism. The
heavily armoured Afghan National Army man gingerly, in scenes reminiscent of
the blockbuster Hollywood war film The Hurt Locker, approached the suicide
bomber wielding naught but a pair of wire cutters. After carefully disabling
the improvised device, the suspect was loaded, his face bloodied and still
bound by his hands and feet, into a flat bed truck to be taken to a detention
centre for questioning.
