KOHAT, July 28: A bomb ripped through a police bus in Jarma area on the Bannu road on Monday, killing a boy and injuring 10 policemen. Some Taliban leaders, including a deputy of Baitullah Mehsud, who were arrested a day before the Hangu military operation was launched, are in the Kohat district prison and the bus was going to bring them to court.

The government has turned down a demand of Tehrik Taliban Pakistan to release Rafiuddin and two other senior militants, Anwar and Naseer, out of seven high-profile detainees.

Officials did not rule out the possibility that the blast might have been the work of the group, which was pressurising the government to release their men.

The area was cordoned off for some time to allow bomb disposal personnel to defuse any other explosive devise in the area. In some attacks in the past, militants have used two bombs – one for attacking the main target and the second for causing maximum damage when security forces and other people gather for rescue work.

The injured were taken to the KDA and Women and Children’s hospitals. The bomb was stuffed with ball bearings and blades to cause heavy casualties, a bomb disposal officer told Dawn.

He said the terrorists had attached the bomb to the battery of a motorcycle.

Some of the injured policemen said that two men standing by the road might have detonated the bomb fitted to a motorcycle by using a remote control.

The boy who died in the blast was hit by a shrapnel.