Peshawar blast 110 dead over 200 hurt

PESHAWAR: A bomb tore through a packed market in Peshawar Wednesday, killing 110 people and trapping people under pulverised shops, in one of the deadliest attacks in a recent spike of carnage.

hospital sources said. More then 200 people injured in the blast.
According to reports, three persons have been rescued from the rubbles of the buildings collapsed after the explosion.

The injured have been shifted to Lady Reading Hospital and other hospitals where emergency has been announced. The children and women are also among the wounded. Some of the injured reported in a critical condition. The administration of Lady Reading Hospital has appealed for blood donation. The blast shattered windowpanes of nearby buildings and created panic among the people.

The charred bodies have been recovered from the blast site as several persons still trapped under the rubbles. A nearby mosque Umme Habiba has been destroyed in the explosion. Police have cordoned off the area as rescue operation is on the blast site.

President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed his heartfelt grief over the loss of innocent lives in Peshawar bomb blast, while denouncing the incident, Prime Minister (PM) Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani directed concerned officials to provide the injured with all the possible medical relief. NWFP Chief Minister (CM), Amir Hyder Khan Hoti has ordered inquiry of the blast.

Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif, CM Punjab Shehbaz Sharif, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Quaid Altaf Hussain, Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira, NWFP CM Amir Hyder Hoti, Governor NWFP Owais Ahmed Ghani, CM Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Governor Sindh Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad, CM Balochistan Aslam Raisani, Governor Balochistan Zulfiqar Magsi, Federal Ministers Farooq Sattar and Babar Ghauri, Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hassan and Qazi Husain Ahmed have strongly condemned the blast.

The massive explosion detonated in a crowded street in the Meena Bazaar of Peshawar, where a huge blaze broke out and officials feared the death toll would rise because of the difficulty of evacuating the wounded.

‘It was a huge bomb blast, heard in almost all the city,’ Anwar Shah told AFP by telephone. ‘It was a car bomb,’ he added.

Pakistani television broadcast footage of burning wreckage, a building collapsing into dust and rubble and smouldering debris as police evacuated panicked residents from the area and firemen hosed down the flames.

‘At least 43 people have been killed and more than 80 were wounded. We have declared an emergency in the hospital,’ said doctor Hamid Afridi, the head of the main government-run Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

Rescue workers and government officials had warned that the death toll was likely to rise with casualties trapped under collapsed shops at the bomb site, where a large blaze and a toppled building hampered the relief effort.

‘Almost all of them are civilians. There are also children and women among the dead and injured,’ said Afridi.

The area was one of the most congested parts of Peshawar and full of women’s clothing shops and general market stalls popular in the city of 2.5 million.

One television clip showed a volunteer lifting a wounded child to safety from the wreckage as dazed survivors staggered out from under debris and panicking shoppers in nearby alleyways ran to safety.

‘A building structure has collapsed. We fear the death toll will rise further, we are trying to bring the fire under control,’ Sahibzada Mohammad Anees, a senior local administrative official, told a private TV channel.

‘People are trapped in the fire and buildings. This is the most congested area of the city,’ he added.

The official did not rule out that the blast could have been caused by a suicide bomber.

Peshawar, a teeming metropolis, is a gateway to Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt, where the military is pressing an major offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants blamed for some of the worst of the recent carnage.

Tensions have soared across Pakistan following a spike in violence blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists. The attacks have left more than 200 people dead this month.