PESHAWAR, Dec 25: The city braved a wave of bomb blasts and other terrorist attacks during the year 2007, mostly targeting CD and video shops, internet cafes and girls’ schools, but those involved in these activities could not be arrested, according to a study.

Many precious lives, including those of children, women and security personnel, were lost in the acts of terrorism. Government buildings, valuables, shops and houses were also damaged. In some of the cases, bombs were defused, but the terrorists could not be held.

The case of a woman who died in a bomb blast at a checkpoint in the high-security Cantonment area on Babar Road on Dec 4 remains a mystery: it has still not been conclusively determined whether it was a suicide blast as preliminary reports suggested.

SSP Investigation Ghulam Hussein told Dawn that some suspects had been arrested, who had admitted their involvement in six bomb explosions that took place in the provincial capital.

He said secret agencies of India and Afghanistan were involved in these explosions.

Apart from bomb explosions, rockets and missiles were fired at areas close to sensitive installations.

Some of the incidents of bomb explosions are as follow:

Jan 6: A 132KV transmission tower of Wapda was blown up in the Masho area.

Jan 27: Capital City Police Officer Malik Saad Khan, DSP Khan Raziq and other people were killed in a suicide attack on a Muharram procession in the Qissa Khwani Bazaar.

March 26: A bomb exploded at the gate of Greens Hotel, in which hotel owner Syed Aaqil Shah and two other people were injured. The car of a provincial minister was damaged in the incident.

March 27: A bomb went off outside an auto workshop of the International Committee of Red Cross in Sufaid Dheri.

April 5: A bomb exploded near the City District Women Degree College in the Hashtnagri region on the Grand Trunk Road. Two passers-by were wounded.

May 15: Twenty-five people, including two women, were killed and 30 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Marhaba Restaurant in the congested old city area. The explosion completely destroyed the hotel and damaged nearby shops and buildings.

May 29: A bomb concealed in a car went off in front of the Peshawar High Court, killing a naib qasid, Nihadullah.

June 28: Three CD shops were blown up in the Matani area.

July 8: Three Chinese nationals were killed and another was injured when armed men opened fire on them on the Charsadda Road. Three suspects -- Samin Khan, Jehangir Khan and Ali Gohar -- were arrested.

July 15: An explosive-laden car was found near the Green Wedding Hall.

July 25: A Wapda tower at Jangoo Ghari, some 40km from Peshawar, was blown up.

Aug 6: Two PAF personnel and a child accompanying them were injured when a bomb exploded near their vehicle on the Kohat Road.

Aug 7: A bomb that exploded at a bus terminal damaged three vehicles.

Aug 8: Police foiled a terrorist plot to hit the Peshawar International Airport and seized five missiles. The missiles had been placed on the bed of the Bara river near the Bazidkhel village, police said.

Aug 13: A hand-grenade exploded at a scrap godown in the Yakatut area.

Sept 8: Twenty-four people were injured in a bomb blast near a branch of the Askari Commercial Bank.

Sept 8: A car bomb exploded in the parking area of Saddar Bazaar, injuring a dozen people. The explosion damaged several vehicles.

Sept 15: Maulana Hassan Jan, vice-president of the Wafaqul Madaris and a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), was assassinated in Sharifabad.

Oct 8: Three video and CD shops were blown up in the Mattani Bazaar.

Oct 9: Twenty-five people were injured when a bomb went off at a CD shop in the Nishtarabad area.

Oct 19: A man was killed when a bomb planted in his car went off in the Momin town.

Oct 28: Three rockets, one of them targeting the residence of ANP leader and former minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour, were fired.

Nov 2: Four CD shops were blown up at the SS Plaza on the Peshawar-Torkham Road.

Nov 9: Three people were killed and two others, including former provincial minister Pir Mohammad Khan, were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the house of the then federal minister for political affairs Amir Muqam.

Nov 11: A man was injured in a bomb blast at an internet café on the Ishrat Cinema Road in Gulbahar-4.

Nov 18: A compartment of the Khushhal Express was blown up in Ajab Bagh near Peshawar. A railway employee was killed.

Nov 26: The boundary wall of a girls’ school was blown up and its windowpanes were shattered in the Sher Bahadur Village. Another girls’ school was blown up in the limits of the Matani police station the same day.

Dec 2: A music centre was destroyed in the Tauhidabad village in a bomb explosion.

Dec 4: A woman died in a bomb blast at a checkpoint in the Cantonment area on the Babar Road.

Dec 9: Armed men fired rockets at a PAF base in Peshawar. Two rockets landed in an open field in the base, while a third one exploded on a nearby road after midnight.

Dec 9: A government girls’ middle school in the Ahmed Shah village was blown up in the Matni area.

Dec 11: Four CD shops in the Badha Bera Bazaar and on Telaband Road were destroyed in four explosions.

Dec 14: An internet café was blown up in Kiani Market of Kohati Gate. Two persons were injured.

Dec 18: Two powerful bomb explosions damaged the shrine of Abdul Shakoor Baba in the Chamkani area.

Dec 19: A bomb exploded at a video shop in the Chamkani Bazaar.

Dec 24: A bomb exploded at a video shop in Bada Bera.