Cinema attack kills 12 as Pakistan, Taliban meet

A TRIPLE grenade attack on a cinema showing pornography in northwest Pakistan killed 12 people Tuesday as government and Taliban negotiators met for a second round of peace talks.
  It was the second such attack within two weeks on a cinema in the city of Peshawar, which has been on the front line of Pakistan’s homegrown Islamist insurgency.
  The attack came as negotiators representing the Pakistani government and Taliban militants met for a second time as part of efforts to end the bloody seven-year rebellion.
  After the meeting in Islamabad the chief negotiator for the Taliban, hardline cleric Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, said the two sides had proposed a ceasefire “to make the atmosphere for talks more conducive”.
  Peshawar city police chief, Mohammad Ijaz Ahmed said three grenades were used in the attack and up to 80 people were in the Shama cinema at the time.
  The cinema is known for showing explicit erotic movies as well as regular films.
 A statement from Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital said 12 men were killed in the attack, including two Afghans, and 24 were wounded.
  Scraps of human flesh, blood-soaked shoes, caps and condoms littered the floor of the hall after the blasts, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
  Akbar Khan, 62, whose left arm and left thigh were injured, told AFP from his hospital bed that he was watching a pornographic movie when a deafening blast rocked the auditorium.
  “It seemed like a hot iron rod pierced through my left arm and leg as I was hit by ball bearings,” he said.
  “I ran towards the gate, from where I was taken to hospital.”
  Peshawar, the capital of restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has seen numerous bomb and gun attacks in recent years.
  The Shama cinema has been in business for more than 30 years. It has been attacked twice before by Islamist activists, but Tuesday was the first bombing.