Terror attack: Twin blasts in Peshawar kill one, injure 19

The IEDs target a police checkpoint in the city’s outskirts

PESHAWAR: A police constable was killed and 19 people, mostly policemen, were injured when two roadside bombs exploded in the outskirts of Peshawar on Wednesday morning.

The first bomb, an improvised explosive device (IED), went off near a police checkpoint in Aslam Dheri village on Pajjagi Road and injured a policeman. “It was around 9:15am when the first IED went off near our [police] mobile during snap checking,” said a police constable Inamul Haq

According to eyewitnesses, the second blast took place close to the first site around 40 minutes after the first blast when dozens of people – including policemen, Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) teams, journalists and civilians – were gathered at the site.

The second blast caused more damage and injured 19 more people including 13 policemen and six civilians. The injured included driver of a local TV channel, CTD officials, policemen, special branch personnel and passers-by.

Emergency was declared in major hospitals of the provincial capital soon after the blasts. Since Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) was the nearest health facility, the injured were shifted to the hospital.

The LRH premises, specifically accident and emergency areas, were completely cordoned off and even media personnel were refused entry.

The police constable who lost his life in the attack has been identified as Iftikhar, 35, a resident of Mathra village. He was a special police officer (SPO) – popularly known as community policemen.

AIG Special Branch Shafqat Malik said that the IEDs were remote controlled and weighed around five kilogrammes each. “Both devices had been buried by the roadside,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2016.