Blast near Kohat kills 2

PESHAWAR: A motorcycle packed with explosives went off outside a mosque frequented by both Sunni and Shia worshippers near Kohat on Thursday, as the government struggled to curb a rising tide of attacks since taking power a month ago.

Two people were killed and dozens were wounded when a motorcycle exploded as people poured out of the mosque in the district of Kohat on Pakistan's first day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, police said.

Pakistani residents move the wreckage  of a motorcycle after a bomb explosion on the main highway between the towns of Kohat and Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on July 11, 2013. PHOTO: AFP

"Followers of both Sunni and Shia sects pray in the mosque," said police official Gul Ameen Shah.

Pakistan's new government has been under intense pressure to tackle the violence. On Wednesday, the president's security chief was killed in a suicide bomb in the port city of Karachi.

A Pakistani policeman stands at the site of a motorcycle bomb explosion on the main highway between the towns of Kohat and Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on July 11, 2013. PHOTO: AFP

The affected people have been shifted to a nearby hospital for medical aid. Police have reached the blast site and cordoned off the area.