The air force van carrying three low ranking officials were injured in the attack and were shifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Peshawar, air force officials said. The explosion was so powerful that it destroyed two other vehicles including a passenger bus and gutted a dozen shops. TV stations showed the wreckage of the van and emergency crews carrying away bloodied victims. Human flesh, broken glass and twisted metal littered the ground around the blast site. "Ten people were killed and 35 injured in the blast. Several of the wounded were in critical condition," senior administration official Javed Marwat said. The injured civilians, including women and children, were shifted to Peshawar's Lady Reading hospital. Officials of the bomb disposal squad said the blast appeared to have been targeting a Pakistan air force van. "Apparently the bomb was planted in a car parked on the roadside and it contained 30 to 40 kilogrammes of explosives, including artillery shells and ball bearings," Shafqat Malik, a senior bomb disposal squad official, said. No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack though such incidents are usually blamed on the Pakistani Taliban. Peshawar, the gateway to Pakistan's tribal region, has been the front line for the Pakistani government's fight with militant groups for more than a decade. Hundreds of people have died in attacks in and around the city in recent years. The Badaber airbase, near the blast place, has historical significance as the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used it for secret missions against the former Soviet Union from 1958 to 1970. The US reconnaissance plane, U-2, which was shot down by the Soviet Union in 1960 had departed from the same facility. -->
No comments:
Post a Comment