KOHAT, Dec 8: Eighteen people were killed and 32 others injured when a suicide bomber blew up a passenger van at a bus stand in the busy Teerah bazaar here on Wednesday.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast took place at around 1.50pm when people were returning home in Lower Orakzai Agency from the bazaar. The explosion damaged 11 other vehicles.

The police media cell said the suicide bomber appeared to be 18 to 20 years old and his jacket contained six kilograms of explosives.

The van caught fire after the blast and passengers suffered fatal burn injuries. The vehicle packed with passengers was about to leave for And Khel in Lower Orakzai when the bomber struck, Gul Haider, an eyewitness, told this correspondent.

“I came to Kohat for shopping and just crossed the vehicle after placing goods in a pick-up parked at the bus stand. I saw parts of human body scattered all around and people running for safety,” he added.

The manager of the bus stand said that the blast also killed or injured some passengers in a nearby vehicle bound for Kalaya.

Security personnel cordoned off the area and tightened security at all the points of entry into Kohat and Hangu districts.

Police said they had found the head and legs of the suicide bomber and sent them to Peshawar for DNA tests.

The bodies and the injured were taken to the KDA Divisional Headquarters Hospital and Women and Children Hospital. Two women and a child were among the injured.

The deceased were identified as Ali Hassan, Janan Ali, Raza Ali, Hassan Ali, Zakat Ali, Syed Gul Hassan, Ali Mohammad, Bahar Ali, Shaiwan Ali, Mir Jan Ali, Syed Ameer Imam, Tazeem Ali, Mir Had Ali, Noor Rehman Jan, Javed Ali, Saqib Ali, Bakht Jamal and Abdul Aziz.

The injured are: Malik Rehman, Irshad Ali, Elham Ali, Ajmer Ali, Ashiq Ali, Ms Samina, Ms Takhmina, Gul Mekh, Hassan Faqeer, Aukhar Gul, Mirza Ali, Maweez Khan, Noor Hassan Shah, Mir Hassan, Rasheed Ali, Said Noor, Ansar Ali, Raz Hussain, Asim Raza, Abad Ali, Habib Raza, Noor Khatma (minor girl), Basheer Ali, Ismail, Naushad Ali, Jumma Gul, Ali Noor, Gul Wali, Ramzan Ali, Mir Azam, Mir Haider Hussain and Naatullah.

Kohat division commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai said: “We have 197,000 internally displaced people in Kohat. I have sent more than 4,400 families over the past four days to Orakzai Agency, but their presence in such a large number is an imminent threat to security.” Dawn

Usman Ali, a spokesman for the TTP Kohat division, told on telephone: “One of our fidayeen has carried out the attack. I cannot disclose his name at this stage. I can only confirm that my superiors ordered the attack.”

It was second such attack at the bus stand over the past seven months. Two people were killed when a bomb exploded inside the office of the bus stand manager on June 1.