PESHAWAR: An improvised explosive device (IED), allegedly meant to target a school, was defused by Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) personnel in Bashirabad area of Peshawar on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.

Officials say unidentified suspects handed over the improvised bomb, fitted in a pressure cooker, to a child, asking him to take it to his school. But the little boy instead of taking it to school brought the IED home.

A Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) slogan was written on the pressure cooker, officials said. On seeing the explosive, family members of the child alerted police and BDS personnel were called in.

According to BDS officials, around five kilogrammes of explosive material was used in the device.

On Thursday, a similar terrorism bid was foiled when the city police defused a bomb planted near a bus terminal on GT Road in Peshawar and arrested a suspect.

Earlier this month, rumours of a possible terrorist attacks on schools circulated in the provincial capital’s rural and urban areas and forced most headmasters to close educational institutions much early.

Panicked parents had rushed to the schools to pick their children, recalling the December 2014 Army Public School militant attack, which killed 144 students and staff members.

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...