DERA ISMAIL KHAN Six people were killed and twenty-two others were wounded when a remote control bomb exploded in front of the main gate of the town hall on the circular road in a heavily populated area of Dera Ismail Khan on Monday.

A bomb rigged to a bicycle parked at the main gate of the town hall ripped through the crowded area killing five persons on the spot and one succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. Three of the victims were aboard the passing car while the other three were walking past the parked bicycle.

Damaged pieces of the bicycle, a rickshaw and car were littered across the scene, but police remained convinced that it was a cycle bomb.

The explosion was so severe that most of the shops and several buildings in the surrounding area were destroyed.

The deceased are identified as Mohammad Ibramih, Ashfaq, Ahmed Nawaz, Hahikm Ramazan, Rafique and Mohmmad Aslam, police said, adding that the bodies were handed over to relatives after postmortem.

The injured, seven of them in critcal condition, were rushed to DHQ hospital Dera Ismail Khan.

The buildings of the girl hostel of Gomal Medical College, Rehmania hospital and Dera press club were situated in the vicinity but which one was the apparent target of the miscreants was yet to be ascertained, police said, adding investigation was underway and the police was trying to reach the bottom of the event.

Sporadic incidents of firing in the air were reported from different localities of Dera city soon after the explosion. However, there were no reports of casualties.

The main markets and business centres were closed in the city due to lingering tensions after the blast. Security was beefed up in Dera city, and extra police forces were deployed at the sensitive areas.

An emergency was declared at the DHQ hospital and police continued to patrol around the hospital, as relatives of the victims thronged the hospital.

Sources said a member of the NWFP Assembly Khalifa Abdul Qayyum narrowly escaped in the blast as he along with his driver and two police guards were passing through the area at the moment of the explosion.