Frightened Peshawaris lashed out Thursday against the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians in their city, where insecurity is paralysing ordinary life. A parked car packed with explosives blew up on Wednesday in a narrow street of the Meena market, known locally as the women's bazaar, demolishing shops and killing more than 100 people.
Many of those killed were women hunting for bargains with their children among the plethora of female clothing concessions. Within seconds, flames tore through the wooden structures of buildings, tightly packed material and clothes shops, engulfing the market in a massive fire that took hours to control. Bodies were ripped to shreds. Corpses were charred.
Faces were unrecognisable and grief was almost palpable across the city of Pashtuns. In 19 days, more than 150 people were wiped out in market-place bombings in Peshawar, turning a love affair for a city felt by millions of Pakistani Pashtuns into fear over a worrying new trend towards mass civilian bombings.