A powerful car bomb ripped through the main arms market of Darra Adam Khel in Frontier Region Kohat on Saturday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 39.
Assistant Political Agent (APA) Fakharuddin said unidentified militants parked the vehicle, rigged with explosives, in the market, and then detonated it.
The blast occurred around 10:35 am in Tor Khel Bazaar of Darra Adam Khel, killing five labourers and eight locals working in small arms factories in the market, Fakhruddin told The Express Tribune.
“Within a 50-metre radius of the explosion site, everything vanished,” he said, adding that 15 shops were gutted, while 19 were damaged, along with seven vehicles parked nearby.
The explosion left behind a crater five feet wide and two feet deep, the APA said.
“Investigators found two pieces of the engine of the vehicle used in the explosion,” he added.
Some of the victims, with minor injuries, were driven to Kohat, while others were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in Peshawar.
The APA added that so far, none of the militant groups have claimed responsibility for the attack.
At the hospital
LRH’s Medical Superintendent Dr Arshad Javaid said six bodies and 31 injured were brought to the hospital.
The relatives of the deceased took the bodies back to their native areas for burial, while the injured were admitted to the hospital, he said.
The hospital administration identified some of the dead as Raees, a resident of Tor Chapper, Jehangir Mardan and Nazir Hussain of Bazid Khel Darra, Shakil from Thori Khel, Shabir, a resident of Mardan and Azmat Ali from Darra Bazaar.
Talking to journalists after his visit to LRH, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain condemned the act, and said they would not bow down before the terrorists.
Such acts would not deter the government’s resolve to take action against terrorists, he said.
Taliban deny involvement
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said it has no involvement in the Darra Adam Khel blast.
The spokesperson for TTP Darra Adam Khel chapter, Muhammad, called The Express Tribune from an undisclosed location and said his group condemned the blast at the busy marketplace.
“We are not involved in the blast and condole with families of those who were killed. We do not target marketplaces,” he said. (With additional reporting by our correspondent in Peshawar)
Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2012.
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