Jamrud blast kills two, injures 14

Two people were killed and fourteen others were injured when an explosive-laden vehicle exploded in a bus stand of the Zakhakhel Tribe, in Jamrud sub-division of Khyber Agency on Sunday, said officials. The bus stand was relocated to Bypass Road in Jamrud after a car-bomb attack on January 10, 2012 left more than 30 people dead. An explosive-laden vehicle parked near a cluster of workshops went off, injuring several people, however, two of them succumbed to their injuries. Abid, a mechanic at one of the workshops told The Express Tribune that an Alto a man parked an Alto near one of the workshops and started walking away quickly after parking it. “An explosion took place and the whole area was engulfed by fire” is how Abid explains the incident. “There were people lying unconscious everywhere,” he said. Officials investigating the incident believe that it was a remote-controlled improvised explosive device (IED) that caused the damage in which three shops and a number of smaller kiosks were also destroyed. The Zakakhel Tribe has been consistently targeted by a number of militants groups in Khyber – particularly the Lashkar-e-Islam – because of its tribal militia the Zakhakhel Qaumi Lashkar. Assistant Political Agent Jamil Khan told the media that they had received information about an explosive-laden vehicle. “We had closed down all the routes for the vehicle to be intercepted, although we manage to restrict the vehicle to Jamrud and saved Peshawar but it had still caused damage,” he said. The injured were shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) in Peshawar. Officials said that there were around 15 people that were brought to the hospital out of which one expired at the hospital while another was received dead. Doctors say that the condition of three injured was critical.