Peshawar explosions: Police suspect female bombers, 5 killed
PESHAWAR:
A second explosion took place in Peshawar on Thursday morning, several hours after an attack on security personnel that killed five earlier this morning at the Lahori Gate.
Express 24/7 correspondent Iftikhar Firdous reported that security forces say it is possible that the second blast was carried out by two female suicide bombers aged about 16 and 17 years old.
Firdous added that the damage from the second explosion was minimal, as the vest of one of the alleged female bombers detonated while the other did not. Both alleged bombers were killed due to the explosion.
A small search operation was launched in the area after the first blast this morning.
Bomb kills five in Peshawar: Police
A planted bomb targeting a police van in Peshawar killed four policemen and a child on Thursday, officials said.
“At least four policemen and a schoolchild have been killed in the attack,” said Muhammad Faisal, a senior police official in the area.
He said that 18 other policemen are injured.
Local police officials said that the improvised explosive device was hidden in a handcart parked at the roadside near the Lahori Gate area.
“The police van was carrying 20 policemen,” said Imtiaz Shah, another police official, adding the vehicle was wrecked in the blast and a group of schoolboys were at the site when the bomb exploded.
“A 12-year-old boy has also been killed in the incident,” he said.
More than 4,500 people have been killed in suicide attacks and bomb explosions, many of them carried out by the Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked extremists, in Pakistan during the last four years.
Source: Peshawar Bomb Blast