PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber struck outside a court in Pakistan's Peshawar on Monday, killing five people and wounding 20 others in the latest blast in a city beset by Taliban violence, officials said.
Peshawar, capital of the troubled northwest, had seen the brunt of Taliban attacks avenging military offensives against them across the region, with more than 270 people killed in the city since early October.
Bashir Bilor, a senior minister in the northwest provincial government, told reporters that a man carrying explosives drove up to a district sessions court in the centre of the city in a rickshaw.
'He got down and tried to enter the building but could not do so because of our security arrangements,' he said.
'Five people died... The injured included three policemen and two lawyers.'
He told AFP that the severed head of the bomber has been found about 70 metres (230 feet) away from the blast site.
Zafar Iqbal, a senior doctor at Peshawar's main Lady Reading hospital, confirmed that they had five bodies delivered to the hospital, and added that at least 49 people were wounded in the blast, some seriously.
Local television channels showed images of blackened sandals lying in pools of water on a charred road. Smoke filled the streets as ambulances rushed to the scene and fire engines trained their hoses on smouldering cars.
An AFP reporter at the scene said that at least eight vehicles were completely destroyed by the blast, while the site was covered in smashed glass and the blood of the dead and wounded.
Senior bomb disposal official Tanveer Iqbal said that about six to seven kilograms of explosives were used in the suicide attack.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani swiftly condemned the blast, deploring 'the loss of innocent lives,' a statement from his office said. Daily Dawn
source - http://www.dawn.com
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