BANNU, Aug 28: Seven policemen and two civilians were killed and 14 people were injured when a bomb placed in a car exploded near a police bus in Bannu on Thursday.

The explosive-laden car exploded when the bus carrying prisoners to a court was on a bridge on River Kurram on Bannu-Peshawar road. The explosion was so powerful that the bus fell off the bridge.

Police sources said that the car parked in the middle of the bridge was blown up with a remote control.

Mutilated bodies of the seven policemen — Mohammad Jan, Inayatullah, Naeem Khan, Naib Khan, Islahuddin, and Sadullah Jan — were taken out of the burnt-out bus. Constable Sairullah died on way to a hospital in Peshawar.

Two civilians — Wajid Rahim, a junior clerk in the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in Bannu, and Waheedur Rehman – were also killed.

Three seriously injured people were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar and the other, two policemen among them, were admitted to the district headquarter hospital in Bannu. The local administration declared an emergency in the hospital.

ASP Waqas denied reports that the blast was caused by a suicide attack, and quoted some witnesses as saying that the car had been parked on the bridge some time before the bus reached there.

APP adds: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani directed Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik to take stern action against the people involved in the heinous crime.