Four children among six injured in Peshawar IED blast

PESHAWAR: Six people, including four children, were wounded in a blast on the Warsak Road near Babu Garhi here on Tuesday.

“Four children injured in the explosion have been taken to hospital,” Capital City Police Officer Ashfaq Anwar told reporters at the spot. He said the bomb went off near a private school on the busy Warsak Road. The windowpanes of nearby buildings were smashed due to the blast. A contingent of police and army arrived at the spot and cordoned off the area.

“The injured were identified as Ihsanullah, 9, Ahmad Zia, 14, Javed, 16, Shakir, 6, Yousuf, 23, and Naimat, 22,” an official said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Operations, Kashif Aftab Abbasi, told reporters that around 4kg explosives were used in the improvised explosive device (IED). The deputy city police chief said the IED was planted in a cement block on the road median that went off at around 9:10am.

“The bomb went off moments after a patrolling vehicle of the Michni Gate Police Station passed through the area,” said the SSP Operations. The police car routinely patrols the area where schools are located. All students were inside schools and classes had started when the bomb went off. Officials of the Counterterrorism Department collected evidence from the spot and registered a case at the CTD Police Station.

The blast reignited fears among parents about recurrence of terrorism as several schools are located in this area. The Army Public School had also been attacked on the Warsak Road on December 14, 2014. At least 147 people, including students and teachers, had embraced martyrdom in that barbaric attack.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar condemned the blast. He instructed the authorities concerned to provide the best possible medical facilities to the injured children and prayed for their early recovery, according to a PM Office statement.

He directed law-enforcement agencies to probe the incident and said nefarious designs of terrorists to mar peace would never be allowed to succeed.

He reiterated the resolve that the war against terrorism would continue till the elimination of the scourge and assured that perpetrators of the incident would be brought to task as soon as possible.

Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah and leaders of various political parties condemned the blast.