PESHAWAR: Forty-nine people, including a woman and seven children, were killed and 90 others injured as terror revisited the provincial metropolis within a fortnight when a suicide attacker detonated his explosives-laden car at the crowded Soekarno Chowk in Khyber Bazaar on Friday.
The explosion occurred at 12:16 pm, exactly when a heated debate was going on in the NWFP Assembly, located a few hundred meters away from the bombing scene.
The blast plunged the provincial capital into grief. Many cried after seeing the bodies of a little girl, Amna, and a woman being carried away from the spot. People volunteered to help the injured and retrieve the dead. Markets were shut down.
There were scenes of devastation all around as body organs were flung all over the place, charred bodies lay on the road and clothes and shoes of the dead and the wounded were scattered everywhere.
The site of the blast is surrounded by the busy Karachi Market, Khyber Bazaar, Qissa Khwani, Shoba Bazaar and the Lady Reading Hospital.
A police official told The News that people were busy in routine activities when a suicide bomber detonated the explosives laden in his car. Many of those killed and injured were the passengers of a mini-bus that was passing through the area at the time of the blast.
Seven children, many of them schoolboys, and a woman, were among those killed. The blast destroyed around 30 vehicles and partially damaged over 60 shops in the nearby markets. Windowpanes of hundreds of shops and offices were also smashed. The blast was heard miles away even in the rural part of the provincial capital.
Some of those killed were identified as three-year-old Amna of Badaber village, Ayaz, Daud, Haleem, Saeed, Iftikhar, Ihsanullah, Jansher, Lihaz Gul, Musa, Murad Ali, Nadir, Nasir Ahmad, Sabir Shah, Sahib Niaz, Samiullah, Sarfaraz, Shakirullah, Sher Gul, Mohammad Iqbal, Ashfaq, Atiqullah and Irshad Khan.
Among those slain were
daily-wage workers, who sat in the square looking for work, mostly in the construction sector. They included masons, carpenters and non-skilled labourers. Patients and their attendants going or coming out of the nearby Lady Reading Hospital, the biggest public sector hospital in the NWFP, were among the dead and injured.
NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain feared more such terrorist attacks in future, asking the public to stand by the government in its war against militancy. “We will chase them until they are eliminated or we will sacrifice our lives,” the minister said.
The city traders announced three-day mourning. A traders’ representative said they wanted to mourn the incident for 40 days but the closure of the markets in the area for such a long period would make everybody suffer. Traders and shopkeepers were critical of the government for its failure to provide them security. The suicide bomber and his handlers were being cursed.
An official of the bomb disposal unit (BDU) estimated that around 50 kg of high-intensity explosives had been loaded in the car, being driven by the suicide bomber, while another official said the explosives were around 100 kg.
“As the explosives were loaded in the doors and side cavities, it caused more damage to the nearby buildings rather than creating a huge crater in the ground,” a BDU official said.
Talking to the media, senior police officer Malik Shafqat estimated that 50 kg of explosives were used in the blast while another cop Ghulam Hussain told a TV channel that 100 kg of explosives were used.
There were reports that the bomber tried to reach the NWFP Assembly building through Sher Shah Suri Road but was not allowed by the policemen near the Peshawar Central Prison. The bomber then tried to make an attempt from the Soekarno Square side but probably got frustrated for not finding a way out to the assembly and blew himself up. No senior official, however, commented on this theory.
The CCTV footage recorded by a private bank located near the site of the bombing was obtained by the Geo TV and shown on the channel. It showed people running in panic near a footpath when the blast occurred. However, it didn’t have pictures of the car that exploded or the alleged suicide bomber sitting in it. Another private bank sited nearby also had some CCTV footage which wasn’t provided to any TV channel. The police reportedly approached the banks to get hold of the footage in the hope of obtaining clues to the terrorists.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Malik Naveed termed the Friday’s attack a reaction to the ongoing military operations in Swat and parts of the tribal agencies. A high-level investigation committee was constituted to probe the incident.
The blast was second in the city after September 26 suicide bomb attack on Fakhar-e-Alam Road, where 12 people were killed and scores of others injured.
The Soekarno Chowk explosion is the second deadliest attack in Peshawar. In 1996, a blast at Wadood Sons Departmental Store on Saddar Road killed around 45 people, including the daughter and a grandchild of the then NWFP Governor Maj-Gen (retd) Khurshid Ali Khan.
Agencies add: Deputy Medical Superintendent Lady Reading Hospital Dr Sahib Gul said the blast killed 50 people and wounded 120 others, 22 of them critically.
Dense smoke engulfed the Khyber Bazaar and witnesses said many casualties occurred in a public transport bus, which was charred. Miraculously a minor girl, who was also on the bus, was the lone survivor. The explosion badly wrecked three cars, two motorbikes, besides smashing windowpanes of dozens of shops and buildings in the market.
“The condition of 22 injured is very serious and they are in the Intensive Care Unit of the Lady Reading Hospital,” the DMS said. Emergency was imposed in the hospital and doctors and paramedics on leave were recalled for duty, he said.
Dr Gul said the death toll could increase, adding that most of the dead were beyond recognition. NWFP Minister for Information Mian Ifitkhar visited the Lady Reading Hospital and met the injured. “The terrorists target innocent people to put pressure on the government to stop the operations against them, but their evil designs would be frustrated with the power of people,” Mian Iftikhar said. He said the militants had been defeated in Malakand, and the government will continue to chase them.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing, the target of which was not immediately apparent. Militants typically attack the government, military or Western targets, but blasts have taken place in public places before.