PESHAWAR, Sept 6: The suicide bombing near a police post in Zangali area on Kohat Road targeted common people who were busy in routine activities at the time when the bomber struck.

The deadly attack occurred at around 1pm and caused widespread devastation in the locality. It turned over 40 shops and cabins into debris. The site of the blast was littered with human flesh, corpses of cattle and damaged vehicles. Body parts were scattered in a radius of 200 metres at the site and people were looking for it in the fields.

More than 10 vehicles including armoured personnel carrier and a truck parked in front of the police post were torn apart completely. Two nearby markets were completely destroyed while window panes of several houses in the vicinity were smashed. The building of Zangali checkpost was completely razed to ground which showed intensity of the explosion.

Situated at about 18 kilometres south of the provincial capital, the Zangali checkpost area has developed as a makeshift market where people from the nearby villages and Afghan refugee camp come for shopping.

According to eyewitness, a land cruiser jeep appeared on the scene at the time of explosion. Noor Gul, an eyewitness, said that he saw a land cruiser exploding in front of the police post.

“I was loading bricks on a truck with my colleagues when a land cruiser exploded near the police post,” recalled Noor Gul. One of his colleagues sustained shrapnel injuries. “I didn’t say it was a suicide bombing. But I saw the jeep which exploded on the road,” he said. An investigator when asked about the nature of the blast said that a double cabin pick-up truck had been used in the suicide attack.

Mohammad Adil, 12, who received injuries in the explosion, said that he saw a vehicle which exploded in the middle of the road. “I had come to the market to buy vegetables when the explosion occurred. I got fainted and found myself in the hospital,” said Mohammad Adil.

Doctors at the Lady Reading Hospital said that blades and shrapnel were being extracted from the wounds which showed that sharp blades had been used in the bomb making. A list displayed at the casualty ward of the hospital contained names of 60 wounded people and all of them were civilians.

LRH Medical Superintendent Dr Haizer Hayat said that 16 bodies were brought to the hospital till 4pm while rescue operation was in progress. He said that number of casualties could mount. The hospital’s casualty wards were packed with wounded people.

Hundreds of people from the nearby localities rushed to the site and started rescuing the wounded and pulling out bodies from the collapsed shops. No official rescue teams had arrived at the site after three hours of the incident to supervise the rescue operation.