At least eight people including two Afghan nationals and three police personnel were killed and 43 others injured in a powerful explosion on a bus stop near Azam Tower on busy University Road here on Monday. According to eye-witnesses the explosion was carried out when an Omni bus was uploading commuters.
A police van was also parked near the venue of the explosion while Commissioner Peshawar Division, Sahibzada Mohammad Anees had also passed from the spot few moments before the incident, but it could not be confirmed that the actual target was police van or Commissioner Peshawar. The injured were rushed to the nearby Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), which had confirmed the receiving of 43 wounded victims while five critically injured were being shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC).
A senior police official Mohammad Faisal told reporters that evidences collected from the site of blast revealed that it was a suicide attack as body parts of the outlaw was also recovered from the blast site. Police said the suicide bomber, apparently targeting the mobile van of Tehkal Police station, blasted himself close to the bus stop at University Road in Peshawar. Five to six kilogram explosive was used in the attack, say the officials of Bomb Disposal Squad.
The people in large number were gathered in the bus stop where a police mobile of Tehkal Police station was passing through at the time of explosion. A passenger bus also came under the attack that increased toll of victims. University Road is a busy highway connecting city with Khyber Agency, University Town and Hayatabad Township. The injured were rushed to Lady Reading and Khyber Teaching Hospitals. The injured also include three policemen identified as Mir Akbar, Abdullah and Khaista Khan while one of the Afghan nationals has been identified as Qazi Hilal, the son of former Afghan prime minister Qazi Amin Waqar was an employee of the Afghan Trade Commissionerate while his nephew Idrees was working in UN refugee agency, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Minister for Information and Public Relations, Mossarat Qadeem has condemned bomb blast.
Meanwhile, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information and ANP stalwart, Mian Iftikhar Hussein has termed the University Road explosion a conspiracy against upcoming general elections. He said that some elements are frightening the people through carrying bomb explosions. He condemned the explosion and urged the people to fully participate in the polls and foiled conspiracies aimed at postponement of the polls. He said ANP will battle conspiracies against the polls.