Peshawar: Suspected militants targeted a
school bus with a roadside bomb in this northwestern Pakistani
city today, killing its driver and a passer-by and injuring
two students, police said.
The bomb planted in the congested Bhana Marri
residential area on the outskirts of Peshawar went off as the
bus from Sir Syed Islamia Model High School was passing by at
3.30 pm.
The blast killed the bus driver and a young boy who
was passing by the area, city police chief Liaquat Ali Khan
said.
Two school children were injured, he said.
The attack was carried out with an improvised
explosive device that was triggered by remote control by
someone who was in the area, Special Superintendent of Police
Aijaz Khan said.
"The blast was meant to create terror. Our policemen
patrol the area," he said.
Police had detained two suspects from the site of the
blast and seized their car.
Both men belonged to Bara area of the restive Khyber
tribal region, Khan said. No group claimed responsibility for
the attack.
The blast created a large crater by the roadside.
Footage on television showed the windows of the school bus
were blown out and part of it was blackened by the explosion.
Officials said six kilograms of explosives were used
in the attack.
Notebooks and bags lay strewn inside the bus. The
seats and interior were shredded by shrapnel and glass shards
from the windows.
Most children had got off the bus before the blast
occurred, police said.
Bashir Bilour, Senior Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
province, said the targeting of school children in a terrorist
attack reflected the growing frustration and desperation among
militants.
"This was an unpleasant incident aimed at spreading
terror among the people and stopping children from going to
school. We will fight the militants to our last breath," he
told the media.
Bilour said the entry of militants into Peshawar has
been made "almost impossible" and the whole area has been
cordoned off.
The provincial government is taking proper measures to
curb militancy and several terrorists had been arrested in the
recent past, he said.
PTI
