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PESHAWAR, Oct 20: Six people, three of them children, were killed and 39 others injured when a bomb went off in a crowded market near Jinnah Park here on Friday.
The explosive device, placed in a push-cart, exploded when people were busy buying foodstuff for Iftar, police said.
Provincial police chief Riffat Pasha said it was a time bomb which went off around 20 minutes before Iftar. He described it as ‘an act of terrorism’.
In Islamabad, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said it was too early to say who might have been responsible for planting the improvised explosive device (IED).
“It seems like a locally made IED,” he said. “It is an attempt to create chaos and harassment.”
The blast caused panic in the area.
Edhi ambulances rushed to the place and took victims to the nearby Lady Reading Hospital where six of them were pronounced dead.
“Thick black smoke covered the area after the blast,” said Siraj, one of the injured admitted to the hospital’s casualty department.
Anther injured person said he heard people screaming for help.
Three of the dead were identified as Ihsanullah, 14; Mohammad Omar, 15; and Nisar, 30; from Bajaur Agency. They were selling second-hand clothes.
Some of the wounded were taken to the Khyber Teaching Hospital where 12 of them were in critical condition.
The injured included Mohammad Saeed, Mir Zaman, Mohammad Ismail, Ghareeb Jana, Ajo, Fazl Rehman, Mirza Ali, Muslim Khan, Abdul Waris, Naghma, Ajoona, Taju, Mohammad Ayaz, Fazl Rabi, Nisar, Haidar Zaman, Ismail, Shah Faisal, James, Irfan, Nabi Gul and Siraj.
Talking to reporters after the blast, the police chief said the device used was similar to the one which exploded in front of the Daewoo bus-stand last week.
He said sketches of the culprits involved in the blast had been prepared with the help of witnesses, adding that these sketches would soon be made public.
Mr Pasha said the saboteurs who had placed the bomb in the push-cart would be arrested soon.
Experts collected fragments of the explosive for investigation.
NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai and Chief Minister Akram Durrani expressed concern over the loss of innocent lives.
In a statement, the governor condemned the blast and termed it an act of cowardice.
Mr Durrani, who is in Saudi Arabia for Umrah, said all efforts would be made to capture the culprits.
He said Rs100,000 would be paid to each family of the deceased and Rs50,000 to each of the injured.
According to AFP news agency, seven people were killed in the blast.
CONDEMNATION: President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minster Shaukat Aziz have strongly condemned the recent Peshawar bomb blast and have termed it an act of sabotage by anti-state elements, adds Online.
President Musharraf has condemned the loss of many innocent lives in the blast, aimed at sabotaging the law and order situation in the country before Eid-ul-Fitr, which the government would foil at any cost.
President Musharraf vowed to continue his war against terrorism and has directed the chief minster and governor NWFP to initiate an investigation and submit their report in earnest.
While condemning the Peshawar blasts, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that terrorist elements were trying to derail the ongoing developmental and progressive steps taken by the government. He directed the governor, NWFP, to arrest those responsible and have the culprits punished accordingly.
