PESHAWAR: One person was killed and three others were injured when a blast took place inside a mechanics shop on the Ring Road in the limits of Chamkani police station here on Monday.

Relevant police officials avoided giving details about the victims and nature of the explosion and only said that it was a cylinder blast inside the shop of a mechanic in Chughalpura area.

“We have no details about the names of the victims but it was learnt that one person was killed in the incident,” said an official.

Efforts were made to get details from the Lady Reading Hospital where the injured persons were shifted to, but no one attended the telephone.

However, AIG Shafqat Malik, head of the Bomb Disposal Unit, confirmed that it was an artillery shell blast, and said that seven other shells had been recovered from the spot during search of the crime scene.

“I heard that it was a cylinder blast but during a visit to the spot it was found that the information was wrong. It was an artillery shell blast and I asked the officials of the counter terrorism department to register case for further investigation,” the AIG said.

Meanwhile, police continued on Monday the search and strike operation in different areas of the provincial metropolis and took several people into custody for interrogation to get a clue about the facilitators of the terrorists involved in the attack on the Army Public School and College, Peshawar.

An official of the rural circle police said that raids had been conducted in different localities mainly close to the border area with Fata where dozens of suspected persons had been rounded up.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2014