Pakistan : Seven killed, 11 injured in Peshawar bus explosion

At least seven people were killed and eleven others were injured on Thursday due to an explosion in a passenger coach in Peshawar's Bazid Khel area on Kohat Road.

Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital's (LRH) media spokesperson Jamil Shah confirmed Dawn that seven people were killed and eleven others were injured in the explosion. Some of the injured were said to be in critical condition.

The casualties were immediately shifted to LRH while rescue workers and the fire brigade staff were trying to control the fire.

The driver of the vehicle Shahidur Rehman said that they were heading towards Upper Kurram Agency from Peshawar and a man with an old bag was sitting at the back seat.

"The man got off the vehicle at Bazid Khel stop to get his relatives and as he stepped out, the explosion occurred," he said.

Police has also recorded Rehman's statement during investigation. Some sources said that the incident may be a targeted attack.

According to police, bomb disposal squad and experts were dispatched to the site of incident to assess the nature of the blast.

Earlier, a Rescue 1122 source had told Dawn that the blast occurred due to the explosion of the coach's gas kit. Police later said the van was hit by a bomb.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) bomb disposal squad Shafqat Malik said that five kilograms of explosive was used in the blast.

The explosion came hours after an attack in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killing Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Asif Mehmood near the Yakatoot police station.

Today’s attacks come days after a suicide blast targeted high-ranking military official Brigadier Khalid Bajwa in Peshawar. Javed narrowly escaped the explosion and the attack was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Peshawar has seen scores of attacks on civilians as well as law enforcement personnel in the past. The city is also the home to the XI Corps, an administrative corp of the Pakistan Army which manages all military activity in KP and is currently engaged in the army offensive in North Waziristan.