Explosion: Blast rips through phone market

PESHAWAR: One person was killed and more than 15 people were injured when a bomb went off inside a mobile phone market in Khushal Bazaar on Thursday morning.

Nearly nine shops were also damaged in the blast.

“Around 2-3 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the small homemade device,” said Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Special Branch Shafqat Malik. He said the device was left in a shopping bag near one of the shops, adding that ball bearings used in the bomb caused considerable damage.

Soon after the blast, police cordoned off the entire area and arrested five suspects who were shifted to a police station for interrogation.

The injured were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH). Some of the injured have been identified as Sharif, Farman, Hayat Khan, Hilal Akbar, Attiq Khan, Muhammad Zarif, Bilal, Abdul Wahab, Usman and Shabir Hussain.

One of the injured, Hidayatullah, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.

This is the third attack in the jurisdiction of Hashtnagri police station over the last month. A police mobile belonging to the same station has been attacked twice earlier, leaving several people including policemen injured.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2013.