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PESHAWAR: Nineteen Persons Were killed And 46 Others Sustained Injuries in an Explosion on a Bus Carrying Mostly Government Employees After Duty Hours from the Provincial Capital to Their Villages in the Charsadda District on Friday.
The explosion took place when the bus reached the Gulbela village on the Peshawar-Charsadda Road.A similar bomb attack on a bus in the same Gulbela village had killed 21 persons and wounded around 40 others on June 8, 2012. Both the attacks took place on Friday, the day on which more bombings occur than any other day of the week.
Around 70 passengers, mostly low-paid government employees, were on way from Peshawar to Charsadda when at around 12pm explosives planted in the rear of the bus went off. The bus was destroyed in the explosion, and 19 persons were killed and 46 injured.
“Most of the passengers boarded the bus from Peshawar Cantonment while some others were picked from the Bacha Khan Chowk, Charsadda Adda and Ring Road Chowk. When the bus reached Gulbela, something went off in the rear of the bus with a deafening sound,” said Wali, an eyewitness who was seated next to the driver. He said the driver lost control over the steering as many bodies and wounded people were seen falling down from the vehicle.
Other passengers rushed to help their friends and relatives. Villagers from the nearby areas rushed to help the injured and pulled out the dead from the damaged bus and from the roadside fields.
Experts of the bomb disposal unit (BDU) said around eight kilogrammes of explosives were planted in the rear portion of the bus and connected with a time device. They said ball bearings were added to the explosives to cause more casualties.
The chief of the BDU Shafqat Malik earlier told reporters that 12-15 kilograms of explosives were used in the explosion.The ambulances of Rescue 1122, Edhi and Al-Khidmat Foundation rushed to the site of the explosion to shift the wounded and bodies to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar and District Headquarters Hospital in Charsadda. Emergency was declared at the hospitals after the explosion.
Among those killed on Friday was a schoolteacher Haroon Rashid, who had been wounded in the previous bus attack on the Charsadda Road last year. Others killed in the blast included a hairdresser Ali and his close friend Mehrab.
Amir, who had done his graduation recently and had come to apply for the post of junior clerk, and the hairdresser of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat Imdad Ali were also among those killed. Some of the other dead were identified as Gulab Said, Mahmood, Riaz, Sher Zaman and Zahidullah.
Thee wounded were identified as Abdullah, Amjad Ali, Asia, Astam, Azeem Khan, Faisal Ameen, Fazlur Rahman, Fazle Wajid, Gulroz, Hazral Bilal, Hidayatullah, Ibrahim, Imdadullah, Jehangir, Kaleem, Lal Zada, Mahboob Ali, Naheed, Naila, Noor Rahman, Sikandar, Tariq, Umar Khan and Wali Mohammad.
The first information report (FIR) of the incident was lodged at the Daudzai Police Station against unknown terrorists.
Office-bearers of the union of the government employees at the Civil Secretariat demanded security for the buses and employees, who have twice been targeted. They said the poor government employees who come from their villages to Peshawar daily for work were inhumanely attacked and killed.
Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak and Governor Shaukatullah condemned the bomb attack on the bus of employees of different government departments.
Senior provincial minister Sikandar Sherpao, Information Minister Shah Farman, ANP leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain and some government officials visited the site of the blast and the hospital, where they consoled with the injured persons.Shah Farman argued that those opposed to peace talks between the government and militant groups were behind these bomb explosions. Sikander Sherpao told reporters that the elements opposed to negotiations between the government and militants were carrying out these attacks in Peshawar and the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Talking to the media, Mian Iftikhar Hussain criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led provincial government for supporting the talks with the militants although they were carrying out frequent attacks in Peshawar and other parts of the country. He was critical of the PTI head Imran Khan for suggesting opening of a Taliban office to facilitate talks with them and said it was impractical. He said the nation and security and law-enforcement agencies need to stay alert as terrorists would continue their attacks even after the offer of talks made to them by the government.
APP adds: President Mamnoon Hussain has strongly condemned the bomb blast in Peshawar that resulted into the loss of several lives. The president expressed deep sorrow and grief over the killings and said the perpetrators of such heinous crimes would not be spared.
He said the country was suffering at the hands of terrorists and extremists who were indiscriminately targeting the innocent civilians.Mamnoon Hussain said the country’s fight against militancy would continue undeterred.He expressed condolences with the bereaved families and prayed for the early recovery of those injured in the blast.The MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, also condemned the blast and expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.
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