Car Bomb Blows off in Peshawar, 86 Dead, Over 200 Wounded
At least 86 people were killed and over 200 injured when a car bomb blew off in a crowded market in northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s arrival in Islamabad on her maiden official visit.
According to reports, a witness informed that the explosion, which was so powerful that its sound was heard across the city, took place in the congested Peepal Mandi area of Peshawar shortly after 1 pm.
A reporter of Dawn News channel said that he had seen at least 10 charred and mutilated bodies being pulled out of the rubble of buildings that collapsed.
Authorities said that more than 30 people were wounded in the explosion. The blast sparked a major fire and white smoke billowed over the market. Around a dozen shops and many cars were burn in the fire.
Video footage on TV news channels showed shops on either side of a narrow road going up in flames and crumbling. Residents of the area used their hands to dig through the rubble of a collapsed building at the end a narrow lane to pull out the dead and injured.
Witnesses feared that more people could be buried underneath wreckage. The blaze obstructed rescue efforts and fire fighters battled for almost an hour to bring the flames under control. Ambulances rushed the injured to hospitals, where an emergency was declared. Many of the people taken to hospital suffered burn injuries.
The blast occurred hours after US Secretary of State Clinton arrived in the Pakistani capital for talks with the country’s top civil and military leadership on the war on terror and bilateral cooperation.
Strict security arrangements were put in place in Islamabad for her visit. Scores have died in a series of bombings and suicide attacks across Pakistan over the past few weeks. A majority of the attacks targeted security facilities, including the army’s heavily guarded General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.
