CHARSADDA/NOWSHERA, Aug 15: Seven preachers, members of Tableeghi Jamaat, and three internally displaced children were injured in two separate blasts in Charsadda and Nowshera districts on Monday.

Eyewitnesses said that an improvised explosive device went off near a car sale centre opposite Tableeghi Markaz in Charsadda, injuring seven preachers.

They said that the blast smashed windowpanes of the car sale centre and nearby houses. The explosion was heard in far off localities, they added.

They said that the device exploded when the preachers, who had returned from a three-day missionary trip, disembarked from a vehicle to go inside the Tableeghi Markaz.

The injured were identified as Wazir Bacha, Noor Zada, Asfandyar, Saifullah, Mohammad Bilal, Ibrahim and Sanaullah. They were taken to district headquarters hospital for treatment.

Police and bomb disposal squad said that it was a time device. At least two kilograms explosives were used in the blast, they added. Police registered a case against unidentified persons and started investigation.

Meanwhile, three children sustained injuries when a bomb exploded at a tent of a displaced family at Jalozai camp in Nowshera.

DPO Mohammad Hussain told journalists that Sharpasand Afridi, an IDP from Bara Khyber Agency, was preparing a time bomb at his tented-house in the camp when all of a sudden the explosive device went off, injuring him and his three children.

He said that Sherpasand Afridi was taken into custody. “He is under interrogation,” the DPO added.

Police, soon after the blast, claimed that militants threw a hand grenade at the tent of Sherpansand and injured his three children. The injured children were identified as Farhada, Nargis and Irshad. They were taken to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar.

It may be mentioned that a similar incident had occurred at the camp a month ago.