KOHAT, Jan 23: A timed device exploded on a bridge near the Pak-Japan Friendship Tunnel in the frontier region of Kohat, Darra Adam Khel, a few hours before the NWFP governor was scheduled to pass through the route on Thursday night, said an official.

An official in the office of deputy administrator of Darra Adam Khel told Dawn that the driver of an oil tanker informed a checkpoint that two motorcyclists had hurled a polythene bag on his tanker, which was lying on the road in Sanda Basta area. But when the deputy administrator, who was waiting for the governor's cavalcade at the Spina Thana checkpoint, approached the site, the device in the bag had exploded.

The official said the governor had fortunately cancelled the visit to his native Kohat town, where he celebrates the Eid. He said that although no arrests had been made so far, the tribe of the area concerned had been asked to investigate the incident and hand over the culprits. A jirga of the area leaders was in progress till filing of this report on Sunday evening.

An official source told this reporter that a month ago, a land cruiser had joined the cavalcade of the governor in Darra Adam Khel when he was going back to Peshawar after attending a function in Kohat.