NOWSHERA:Five people were killed and 26 others suffered injuries in a bomb blast near the venue of a public meeting organised by Awami National Party (ANP) here on Monday. Eleven of the injured are police personnel. (Foreign news agencies put the death toll at seven)

The remote-control bomb strapped to the fuel tank of a motorcycle exploded immediately after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti had left the meeting in a helicopter, accompanied by a number of ministers and party leaders.

According to police, three people died on the spot and two others at the Lady Reading Hospital.

The injured were taken to district headquarter hospital in Nowshera and 12 of them were referred to Peshawar hospitals.

The ANP meeting was the obvious target of terrorists, but they failed to achieve it because of tight security, district police chief said.

Bomb disposal personnel collecting evidence from the site of the blast told journalists that three to four kilograms of explosives had been used in the blast.

The dead were identified as Muhammad Hussain, Tariq, Muhammad Israr and Sabz Ali. Their bodies were brought to the DHQ hospital in Nowshera for autopsy and later handed over to relatives.

Some of the injured were identified as Noor Muhammad, Javid, Haider Afridi, Laiqat Ali, Muhammad Ajmal, Gul Muhammad, Nazeer, Janis, Badam, Laiqat, Tariq, and Muhmmad Hussain.

Funeral prayers of the deceased were offered in their respective towns.

Awami National Party's provincial president Senator Afrasiab Khattak expressed deep shock and grief over the loss of lives and termed the blast a cowardly act. He offered condolences to the bereaved families.

He said the determination of the ANP leadership to restore peace in the Pakhtun soil could not be deterred by such cowardly acts.