PESHAWAR, June 8: At least 19 people were killed and 39 others injured when a powerful bomb ripped through a bus carrying government employees and private passengers from Peshawar to Charsadda on Friday afternoon.

According to police, the blast took place in the bus when it reached the Gul Bela area.

The Medical Superintendent of Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital, Rahim Jan Afridi, said that 11 bodies had been brought to the hospital and 18 injured were under treatment. The body of two-year-old Mahnoor lay there with that of her mother.

Medical Superintendent of Charsadda Hospital said that seven bodies, three of women among them, had been brought to the hospital. He said the hospital had admitted 22 injured passengers, one of whom later died. Of the injured, 19 were employees of government departments, he said. According to Superintendent of Police, Shafiullah Khan, the powerful blast reduced the bus to complete wreck.

Senior Superintendent of Police Tahir Ayub said that eight to 10 kilograms of explosives had been used in the bomb planted in the bus.

He said there was no information about any threat to the employees’ bus.

An official said that the bodies were badly mutilated and human flesh and blood could be seen all around.

Jalal, a 15-year-old boy, who suffered serious bone fractures, said that he, along with his mother (Munawara Begum, who died on the spot) and his younger brother, had gone to the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar to enquire after the health of a relative.

“The bus was crowded and I was standing in the middle.” After the blast, he said, a thick smoke engulfed the vehicle and he could not see where his mother and brother were.

“I recognised my brother from his screams in the LRH ward,” he said, with tears rolling down his face.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour told journalists the bomb had been planted in the rear portion of the bus.

Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said terrorists were carrying out such desperate attacks to terrorise people and spread panic.

The government, he said, was ready for talks with those elements who laid down arms and accepted the writ of the state, adding that the government would not succumb to any pressure and would continue its fight against anti-state elements till they were defeated.

Some of the dead identified in the two hospitals were Ms Riasat, wife of Gul Rahim; Mir Ali Shah, son of Barkat Shah; Ms Dil Raaj, wife of Himayatullah; Sanan, son of Amir Muhtaj; Wajid Saeed, son of Azeem Saeed; Ms Yasmeen, wife of Asad; and Anwar, son of Shad Ali; Ms Noor Zeb, wife of Bakhtiar; Mahnoor, daughter of Bakhtiar; Shakira Mand, wife of Tariq Aziz; Mobeena, daughter of Gul Rehman; Reshma, daughter of Sarbuland; Sajida, wife of Imdad; Jan Badshah, son of Taweez Gul; Inayat-ur-Rehman, son of Sadiq; Suhail, son of Shehbaz Khan; and Sher Bahadur.

Agencies add: Arsalan, a junior clerk in the provincial auditor general's office, said he remembered asking the driver to stop at a mosque on the road for main Friday prayers just before the explosion took place.

“I don't remember what happened next because I fainted and (found myself) in a hospital bed,” the 28-year-old, also with head and neck injuries, said.