PESHAWAR, Aug 11: One person was killed and two others were injured when a time-bomb went off in the hands of a youth in front of a private hospital in the Shaikhabad area of Gulbahar early on Monday.

The hospital’s main gate was damaged and windowpanes at its front side smashed.

The name of the suspected bomber could not be ascertained.

The injured were identified as Afghan national Sher Mohammad and a security guard of the hospital, Bashir, of Spin Khaak, Nowshera. They were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital.

A police official said the injured Afghan would be interrogated, adding he might be an accomplice of the bomber.

ASP Gulbahar Zahid Mehmood, when contacted, told Dawn that it was not a suicide attack, saying initial investigation had showed that the man was taking the bomb to somewhere else and it accidentally went off in his hands.

He said the explosive weighed about four kilograms and seemed to be like dynamite because it did not have ball bearings and other shrapnels.

An official of the Nasir Mohmand Surgical Hospital, Mohammad Riaz, told journalists that at the time of the explosion he was at his residence at the top of the multi-storey building.

“When I came downstairs I saw body parts of a man lying scattered on both sides of the road,” he said.

He claimed that it was a suicide attack because the body of the youth had been torn into pieces, which could not be identified.

“The security guard had seen the suspected bomber coming towards him, but he could not talk to him because he was trying to enter the hospital and he blew himself up at the main gate,” he said.

The ASP said police had started investigation to know who the target of the attacker was.

He alleged that most of crimes in the city areas were committed by Afghan nationals.