NOWSHERA: At least 10 people, including six security personnel, were injured in a suicide attack on a Frontier Constabulary (FC) vehicle on Thursday, officials said.

According to police, the suicide attacker who was on a motorcycle detonated the explosives when the vehicle of the paramilitary force was passing through the main railway crossing on Mall Road.

Witnesses said that a loud explosion occurred and thick flames engulfed the vehicle soon after the blast. Fire engine and rescue teams were immediately called in to take the injured to District Headquarters Hospital Nowshera and Combined Military Hospital. Three of the victims were stated to be in a critical condition.

Vehicle of paramilitary force was target of attack

Spokesman for Rescue 1122 Mudasir Iqbal said that they quickly responded and sent medical experts to the blast site and district emergency officer Dr Mir Alam Khan supervised the rescue operation.

District Police Officer Nadeem Bukhari told reporters that about four kilograms of explosives were used in the attack.

Police collected the bomber’s body parts from the scene and said that his age seemed to be around 18 years.

The injured civilian persons were identified as Tanveer Mehmood (58) of Nowshera Cantt, Sahibullah (24) of Peshawar, Jawad (22) and Muhammad Haroon of Bakhshali in Mardan, and Adnan (24) of Kalan.

The injured FC officials were Bashir (35) of Army Public Armour School, Javed (28) of Lund Khwar in Mardan, Hidayat (34) of Khyber Agency, and Abdul Rehman of Amangarh.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2018