Double attack: Blasts at bakery, bus stand kill 24

Contradictory accounts of attack in Nowshera; Taliban claim responsibility.

At least 18 people were killed in a bomb blast at a bakery in Nowshera, while six others were killed and seven injured when a timed device went off at a crowded bus stand on the outskirts of Peshawar on Sunday, police and government officials said.

“It was a remote-controlled bomb planted in a dustbin at the entrance of the bakery on the main Mall Road in Nowshera,” Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the provincial information minister, told AFP.

He said the blast sparked a huge fire which was brought under control. Local administration official Zakaullah Khattak said the death toll from the attack stood at 18, with 28 injured.

Suicide, planted or accident?

District Police Officer Nowshera Qureysh Khan said the blast was a cylinder explosion but the chief of the Nowshera bomb disposal squad Tanvir Ahmed said he believed the bakery attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. Ahmed said officers had found what was thought to be the bomber’s head at the blast site, along with ball bearings and steel pellets. Eyewitnesses and locals also corroborated his account.

“It was a suicide attack not a gas explosion,” said Junaid, a local who had followed one of his injured relatives to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

There were at least four explosions, probably of the gas cylinders, following the first blast and fire engulfed the bakery and nearby buildings, eyewitnesses said. The area was later cordoned off by security forces, they added.

Taliban claim responsibility

The Taliban claimed Sunday’s attack in Nowshera in a phone call to reporters. “It was a remote-controlled bomb which was planted by our men,” Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said from an undisclosed location.

Nowshera police chief Abdullah Khan confirmed the casualties, saying the dead included three children and three of the injured were in a critical condition.

The incident occurred in the garrison town and the army’s supply corps, artillery centre, and mechanised warfare center are situated nearby.

Matani blast

Earlier in the day, a remote-controlled bomb tore through a passenger vehicle parked at a bus terminal near Peshawar, killing six people and wounding 11 others.

The blast took place in Matani area, some 20 kilometres south of the city on Indus Highway, close to the border of Darra Adamkhel. Superintendent of Police (SP) Rural Circle told reporters that the blast took place at a bus stand in Matani Bazaar.

A red-colored passenger vehicle was about to a leave for Kalakhel when the blast took place inside it, he said, adding that the vehicle was gutted in the attack. Peshawar police chief Mohammad Ijaz also corroborated his account.

He quoted witnesses as saying a man boarded the vehicle and left after leaving a package inside, telling people that he would be back soon. Shortly afterwards a huge blast ripped through the vehicle. The casualties were mostly among the passengers, he added.

The dead included three women and one child, he said.

Dr Saleem at the LRH emergency department said they received at least four bodies, while a woman succumbed to her injuries at the hospital. Saleem said that six of the seven patients were discharged after providing necessary treatment.

Bomb disposal unit officials said a timed explosive device, weighing around five kilogrammes, was used in this attack while ball bearings were added to make it more lethal.

Munawar Khan, the bus stand owner, said that people usually leave their luggage at the vehicle stand and go to the nearby market for shopping. They come back to the stand at the time of departure, he added.

Locals said that market was packed when the blast took place at around 9 am, and police cordoned off the site following the blast. Two other vehicles were also destroyed in this blast, they added.

Matani, situated south of Peshawar, is one of the most volatile places in the region. Several attacks have taken place in this area and nearby village of Adezai, where a local lashkar is fighting Taliban militants. (With additional input from wires)

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2011.