Pakistan`s Peshawar attacked thrice in a week, bomb kills 40

Zee Media Bureau

Peshawar: Just a week after 80 people were killed in twin suicide bomb attack outside a church, Pakistan’s Peshawar on Sunday was hit again when militants detonated a car bomb in a market killing 40. They said 13 members the family had come to the city from the adjacent Charsadda district to take part in a marriage function and the blast left nine of them dead. This is the third major militant attack in Peshawar after last Sunday`s church attack and last Friday`s attack on bus carrying government employees that claimed 17 lives. The bomb was triggered with a remote control, Additional Inspector General of Bomb Disposal Squad Shafqat Malik said. The market also known as the "storytellers` market" was the site of a massacre in 1930 when British soldiers fired on peaceful demonstrators, killing hundreds. Pakistani Taliban were generally blamed for such attacks. However, the banned militant group denied its involvement in today`s blast that took place in Peshawar, the main city of troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The bomb exploded in Kissa Khwani market in Peshawar but the Pakistani media quoted the health minister as saying that the militants might have targeted a police station. It was a huge blast which set ablaze the vehicles and sent dark plumes of smoke rising up in the air. Those injured were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. The blast comes on the day PM Nawaz Sharif is set to meet Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in new York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. c Ahead of the meet, Manmohan Singh described Pakistan as an “epicenter of terrorism”. Though no militant outfit has claimed the responsibility but of late Taliban has been staging increasing number of attacks in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Even the last Sunday`s attack on church in Peshawar was claimed by the Taliban. The Taliban reject Pakistan`s constitutuion and want Army removed from tribal regions. Earlier today in an interview to Geo TV, a Taliban sokesperson said that PM Nawaz Sharif didn`t have authority to hold talks with militants, only Pkaistani militar did. Nawaz Sharif, who is at the UN, condemned the attack calling it an attack on humanity. "Those involved in the killing of innocent people are devoid of humanity and all religions," he said in a statement. (With PTI Inputs)