Pakistan: major attacks in 2009

Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, with the latest blast following army action to push back a growing Taliban insurgency in the Swat region in the north west. Below is a timelineof the major attacks in recent months. 27 May: Gunmen attack a police headquarters in the Pakistani city of Lahore, opening fire and setting off a car-bomb that killed at least 22 people and wounded nearly 300. 16 May: Car packed with mortar bombs blows up in the north western city of Peshawar, killing 11 people, including four children passing in a school bus. 11 May: Ten people are killed and more than a dozen wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a security check post near Peshawar. 25 April: Twelve children who mistake a bomb for a toy are killed when it explodes as they play with it in the Low Dir district near Swat. Authorities say it is unclear whether the incident is an "act of terrorism" or an accident. 18 April: A suicide car-bomber rams a military convoy, killing 25 soldiers and police and two passers-by near Kohat, 190 km (120 miles) west of Islamabad. 15 April: A suicide car-bomber blows himself up at a security post in the north west, killing nine policemen and three civilians. 5 April: A suicide bomber blows himself up in a religious centre for minority Shi'ite Muslims in Chakwal in central Pakistan. At least 17 people are killed and about 11 seriously wounded. The attack comes a day after a suicide attack in Islamabad killed eight paramilitary soldiers. 30 March: Militants armed with guns and grenades storm a police training centre in Lahore killing eight recruits, wounding scores and holding off police and troops for eight hours. The attack is claimed by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Four militants are killed and three arrested. 27 March: A suicide bomber kills 37 people when he blows himself up in a crowded mosque near the Afghan border. Among the dead are 14 policemen and paramilitary soldiers. 3 March: Gunmen attack a bus carrying Sri Lanka's cricket team outside a Lahore stadium, killing seven people, including six policemen and a driver, and wounding six of the cricketers and a British coach. 20 February: Suicide bomber kills 27 people and wounds 65 in an attack on a funeral procession for a Shi'ite Muslim killed a day earlier in Dera Ismail Khan town. 5 February: At least 24 people are killed in a suspected suicide bombing near Shi'ite mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan, central Pakistan.