ISLAMABAD: Amid an army offensive against the Taliban stronghold of south Waziristan, a suicide bomb blast struck a busy commercial area near the Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi on Monday killing at least 29 people, several of them military officials. Dozens of others were also wounded.

The explosion happened just few hundred meters away from the entrance of the army headquarters and close to a bank and a hotel (Shalimar hotel) on the Mall Road in the heavily guarded Rawalpindi city. The army headquarters was subjected to a 22-hour siege by militants last month. According to police officials, Monday���s attack came when a suicide bomber on a motorbike detonated his explosives outside a crowded bank.

Many people, including serving and retired military officials and pensioners, who had come to a state-run National Bank near the Shalimar hotel to collect their salaries and pensions were among the dead and injured. The Rawalpindi police chief, Rao Muhammad Iqbal, told media that around 22 people had been killed in the attack but hours later several TV stations were quoting a figure of 29. Soon after the attack, the military personnel cordoned off the area and diverted traffic from the road in front of the hotel. All hospitals in Rawalpindi declared an emergency as rescue services rushed to help the dead and injured. Schools across the city were also closed. The explosion was so intense it destroyed window panes of the several nearby buildings.

Raja Sajid, an eye witness who rushed to the scene said that he saw nearly 20 people, dead and dozens of others wounded, adding several of them were in military uniforms.

���I helped the rescuers and put several of them in the ambulances. An old man stained in blood was crying for help��� he said. Citing the ongoing violence across the country, the United Nations announced on Monday that it was pulling international staff from the north-west Pakistan. In a statement, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said that the decision had been taken keeping in mind the intense security situation in the region. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Taliban, who have taken credit for a series of attacks since early October. The militants have said the strikes will continue until the military pulls back from the south Waziristan tribal area.

Hours before the attack, the military claimed to have killed 124 militants in their stronghold of South Waziristan while lost 18 of their soldiers. The government also announced on Monday a bounty worth millions of dollars for the capture of the Taliban leadership. In a front-page newspaper advertisement, the government offered a reward of five million dollars for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of the Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and his two close aides, Waliur Rehman and Qari Hussain described as a master trainer of suicide bombers.

Pakistan has been relentlessly rocked by a wave of militant attacks in recent weeks. Taliban militants retaliate against a military offensive in the volatile South Waziristan region and target security installations and crowded markets.

Since mid October, when the army launched an operation against Taliban militants in South Waziristan about 300 people have been killed in similar attacks. Less than a week ago, a massive car bomb ripped through the heart of a crowded marketplace in Peshawar, killing at least 100 people and injuring at least 200 others.

On October 20, two explosions took place at Islamabad's International Islamic University that killed at least nine people died. And on October 10, militants held dozens of hostages inside the army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Nearly two dozen people, eleven military personnel, three civilians, and nine militants were killed in the siege.

