KOHAT: At least 13 people, a woman and a child among them, were killed when a bomb exploded in Hangu Chowk here on Sunday. Thirteen people were injured.

Police said terrorists had planted about 5kgs of explosives in a crate of cooking oil containers and detonated them with remote control. Fortunately, a nearby girls’ college was closed, otherwise the death toll would have been higher. Three vehicles were damaged. The explosion was heard in places as far away as five kilometres.

The blast took place at a bus terminal mostly used by people going to Shia-dominated areas of Ustarzai and Sher Kot. All the victims belong to the Shia community.

Officials said the attack could be the handiwork of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan which had recently killed a Shia leader, Sher Mohammad Turi, near his house.

Twelve of the dead were identified as Boshan Ali, Fazl-i-Akbar, Hussain Ghulam, Mohammad Afzal, Sehrab Ali, Said Lal, Akhtar Ali, Syed Murtaza, Haji Saifullah, Qaiser Ali, Abdullah and Ms Nurat.