Arms Depot Blast Kills 76 in Pakistan : Missiles and Shells Shower Capital, 2nd City; 850 Are Injured

An enormous explosion at an army ammunition dump left at least 76 people dead and 850 injured Sunday and showered the Pakistani capital and its sister city of Rawalpindi with hundreds of missiles and artillery shells.

Panic swept through the capital region as the ensuing series of blasts shook the area for more than an hour after the initial explosion. Shells landed near houses, government buildings, schools and embassies, including the U.S. mission. Some of the shells fell as far as eight miles from the ammunition dump.

The toll is expected to rise since the initial figures are believed not to include anyone from among the hundreds of troops inside Ojhari camp, where the ammunition was located.

Scene of Devastation

Close to the site of the explosion, the scene was one of devastation, as if a major battle had been fought. Streets and fields were littered with thousands of pieces of ordnance, houses and buildings were destroyed and bodies of humans and livestock lay untended as emergency workers struggled to cope with the casualties.

One shell hit near the U.S. Information Agency building, two others fell inside the U.S. Embassy compound and at least one exploded at the predominantly American Islamabad International School. There were no injuries reported among U.S. citizens, although the missile that struck the school crashed behind the stage of the school auditorium, where several hundred children had taken shelter.

“There was fire all over, I thought I was going to die,” Emily Wilder, 10, an American, told United Press International. Her brother, Nicholai, 13, added that children “were screaming, yelling and running. It was total panic.”

“We were approaching (the school), and it (the explosion) rocked us in the car,” U.S. Embassy spokesman Jon Stewart told reporters. “The flame rose several hundred feet in the air, a sheet of flame.”

Residents Fear Attack

Panicked residents streamed from their homes and offices, saying they believed that the country was under attack.

Among those killed Sunday was Khaqan Abbasi, a member of Parliament and former minister of production and public works, whose car was hit by a missile near the center of Islamabad.

An official statement said the initial explosion occurred when soldiers loading a truck could not contain a fire that broke out at Ojhari camp, situated between Islamabad and Rawalpindi in an area called Faizabad. Officials said the camp is used to supply defense needs for the capital region. But there were suggestions and some evidence that the camp was being used to funnel supplies to the moujahedeen , the Islamic guerrillas battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo immediately ordered an investigation into the cause of the disaster.

A team of U.S. Navy bomb disposal experts flew to Islamabad from the Persian Gulf to help disarm hundreds of unexploded missiles, the Pentagon said in Washington.

Merchants in the heavily congested area near the ammunition dump said there had been a small explosion that had rattled windows in the area, which was followed several minutes later by a huge explosion that shattered glass for miles and began the devastating series of blasts.

Witnesses said the larger explosion occurred at 9:55 a.m. and sent a fireball about 300 yards wide soaring hundreds of yards into the air. Within minutes a giant black plume of smoke covered the area and more explosions could be heard all over the capital region. The streets were busy as Pakistanis began their workweek, which runs from Sunday through Thursday.

Journalists reaching a point about two miles from Ojhari camp took cover as shells began landing around the area. For more than 25 minutes, scores of missiles whistled overhead and the ground shook from the impact of continuous explosions inside the camp.

More than an hour after the large explosion, a steady crescendo continued from small arms ammunition exploding inside the dump. Many of these explosions appeared to be coming from a large number of metal shipping containers lined up along the rear perimeter road of the camp.

According to informed sources, ammunition and weapons for the guerrillas often come into Pakistan by sea to Karachi and then by rail to Rawalpindi, where it is sent to the border region by truck.

At Rawalpindi General Hospital, frantic mothers searched for children as hospital attendants pulled back the sheets covering bodies in the makeshift morgue. Hospital officials reported 18 dead and more than 150 injured by early afternoon, and ambulances continued to stream in with new casualties.

Official figures given in Parliament by Justice Minister Wasim Sajjad put the death toll at 58, but a count of area hospitals brought the toll to 76 dead and more than 850 injured. United Press International reported the number of injured at 1,000.

The twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have a combined population of more than 4.5 million.

At the Rawalpindi hospital, a man who gave his name only as Afsar said that he, his brother and one other man had been walking on a road near the explosion site when the blasts began.

“The man on the right was hit in the back . . . . He was finished. Missiles were whistling all around,” Afsar said as he tended his brother, who was cut badly over his eyes and had lost his vision in his right eye.

“I was running with my mother when something hit me from the back,” said one young man, who gave his name as Hassan. “I don’t know where my mother is. I saw many people hurt. Many were crying.” Hassan had multiple cuts on his body.

Rawalpindi is home to Pakistan’s major military command headquarters and to President Zia ul-Haq and Prime Minister Junejo. Both leaders were out of the city Sunday morning but rushed back to the capital, Junejo from Karachi and Zia from an international Islamic conference in Kuwait.

President Zia later appeared on government television and said, “My heart is injured and my eyes are filled with tears,” according to news reports.

Many of the thousands of shell casings that littered the area around the camp were munitions known to be used by the Afghan rebels.

A large number of trucks, some bearing Afghan and Peshawar area license plates, were destroyed by the explosions inside the camp perimeter. The same types of trucks are widely believed to be used to ferry munitions to the Afghan guerrilla forces.

U.S. and Pakistani officials refused to comment on the supply operation for the Afghan guerrilla forces.

If the huge amounts of ammunition that exploded Sunday had been earmarked for the Afghan guerrillas, however, its loss would appear to be a significant blow as the rebels and the Soviet-backed Kabul regime prepare for what is expected to be a major test of strength after the anticipated withdrawal of Soviet forces under an accord expected to be signed in Geneva this week.

In a separate incident Sunday, the official Pakistani News Agency reported that eight people were killed and 12 were injured when a fire broke out in a small arms manufacturing factory in the town of Rana, near Lahore and 140 miles south of Islamabad.