Suicide bomber kills two near Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: At least two people were killed and several others including civil judge Asif Jadoon and three female judges injured when a loud explosion took place near the Hayatabad Medical Complex here in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) capital on Wednesday.

Local TV channels reported that the explosion took place in the upscale neighbourhood of Hayatabad phase-5 of the city.

Rescue officials and security forces reached the site immediately after the incident. The area was cordoned off and a search operation kicked off.

Talking to a private TV channel, SSP Sajjad Khan said that civil judge Asif Jadoon along with four others traveling with him in his van also sustained serious injuries. Their van was the apparent target of the attackers, he added.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister Shaukat Yousafzai confirmed that civil judge Asif Jadoon's vehicle was the target of the suicide attacker, who rammed motorcycle he was riding into the van, killing the driver on the spot.

Judge Jadoon and three female judges sustained wounds and have been taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex, he added.

CCPO Tahir Khan confirmed that the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber, whose head and legs have been found from the site.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was due to visit a nearby hospital. He however remained unharmed. Khan's party rules Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of which Peshawar is capital.

The incident took place the same day when five people were killed after two suicide bombers attacked a government compound in Mohmand agency, with the Taliban claiming the assault as the latest in a fresh offensive. At least seven others were wounded in the early-morning attack in Mohmand agency.

Security has improved throughout the country over the past few years but a spate of attacks in recent days, and a threat by a hardline militant faction to unleash a new campaign against the government, has raised fears of bloodshed.

There was no immediate claim for the Peshawar attack but the Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Mohmand blast. The same group claimed an attack in Lahore on Monday in which 15 people, five of them policemen, were killed.

The group said the Lahore attack was the beginning of a new campaign against the government, security forces, the judiciary and secular political parties.