PESHAWAR: A bomb blast injured at least seven people including a child in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar yesterday, officials said.
The explosion took place in the densely populated Kohati Gate neighbourhood in downtown Peshawar.
“A remote-controlled bomb which was planted near house of a local trader went off wounding seven people, including a woman and a child,” senior local police official Faisal Mukhtar said.
A senior doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital confirmed seven people, including a seven-year-old boy were, brought to hospital for treatment.
Peshawar, which is the gateway to restive Pakistani tribal regions, has been the site of a series of bomb blasts and suicide attacks since 2007.
More than 6,800 people have been killed in bomb and gun attacks around Pakistan since July 2007, according to a tally.
In a separate incident, gunmen yesterday intercepted three container trucks carrying Nato supplies en route to Afghanistan in a troubled tribal region and torched one of them, officials said.
The incident happened near Jamrud area of Khyber, one of seven districts that make up Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, as they were on their way to Afghanistan.
“At least five gunmen intercepted the trucks and later torched one of them after asking their drivers and helpers to get down,” a senior local administration official, Ali Sher said.
A local intelligence official also confirmed the incident.
Pakistan is a major transit supply route for the Nato mission in landlocked Afghanistan.
No group has admitted responsibility but the Taliban have in the past claimed such attacks.
Trucks travelling through Pakistan to supply US-led forces have frequently been attacked during Nato’s 13-year intervention in Afghanistan.
Nato constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
AFP
