KOHAT/PESHAWAR, Dec 22: Four persons, including a girl child, were injured in a remote controlled bomb blast at the private clinic of a lady doctor in Hangu city on Thursday.

The main gate, waiting rooms and boundary wall of the clinic were badly damaged in the explosion. The lady doctor remained unhurt in the blast, however, her assistant received injuries.

Police said that the remote controlled device had been planted at the gate of the clinic and it exploded when several patients were waiting for their turn for medical checkup. The clinic is situated in Bahadar Garhi area of Hangu city.

The injured child, Sayam, who had come to the clinic for treatment, was in serious condition, doctors said. The other people, who suffered injuries from the splinters of the gate, were identified as paramedic Khayal Mohammad, Abdul Lateef and Naeem Shah. “All the three injured are in their teens,” sources said. They were being treated at the district headquarters hospital by the surgeons of Médecins Sans Frontières, which had its own operation theatre and emergency room inside the building.

The bomb disposal squad said that the device could be approximately two kilograms heavy because its blast was very huge and jolted the surrounding houses and buildings.

Security in the region was beefed up to avoid any untoward incident owing to the daylong visit of Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to Kohat and Orakzai Agency on Thursday.

In Peshawar, a bomb blast destroyed a portion of a house owned by a tribesman at Saadat Town in Rasheed Garhi area on Thursday morning, police said.

According to police the explosive device was planted beside the house of Saadat Khan Mohmand, who has shifted from Mohmanad Agency and dealing in property business.

An official of Yakatoot police station said that the complainant avoided to nominate anyone in the case and said that he had not enmity with anyone. Quoting the complainant, police said that his family had got no threats and he was unable to blame anyone for the blast.

An official of the bomb disposal unit said that about 800 grams explosives, packed in a canister, were used in the blast.

He said it was a time bomb but it seemed that the device exploded before its time and people remained unhurt.

About the Wednesday's blast in Nasir Mohmand Surgical Hospital in Gulbahar, the official said that experts found no proof about use of explosives in it. It was surely a gas explosion, he said.