PESHAWAR: A bomb blast on a passenger coach in northwest Pakistan yesterday killed at least seven people and wounded another six, police said.
The bomb was planted beneath a passenger seat and exploded in the outskirts of Peshawar, the region’s main city, while the bus was en route to the town of Hangu.
“At least seven people have been killed and six wounded, the bomb was planted under a seat,” senior police official Najeeb Ur Rehman said.
The motive of the attack was yet not clear but police said they suspected a sectarian motive in a region known for Sunni-Shia violence. Syed Jameel Shah, a spokesman for Peshawar’s main Lady Reading Hospital, confirmed the death toll.
Peshawar is the gateway to the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions where the military has been battling Islamist militants for more than a decade.
The army launched a major operation in June to destroy bases of the Taliban and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal area.
It says has killed more than a thousand militants and lost 86 soldiers since the start of the current operation.
Terrorism in Pakistan has become a major and highly destructive phenomenon in recent years. The annual death toll from terrorist attacks has risen from 164 in 2003 to 3318 in 2009 with a total of 35,000 Pakistanis killed between September 11, 2001 and May 2011.
President Asif Ali Zardari, along with former President ex-Pakistan Army head Pervez Musharraf, have admitted that terrorist outfits were ‘deliberately created and nurtured’ by past governments ‘as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives.’ AFP
