PESHAWAR, Nov 15: Three persons, including a prayer leader, were injured in a remote controlled bomb blast at Adezai Chowk, a suburban area of provincial metropolis, here on Monday morning.

The injured were identified as Mohammad Hussain, the prayer leader of a local mosque, Abdul Manan and Sherhzad.

The bomb, planted on roadside, also destroyed a portion of the mosque. The injured people were rushed to Lady Reading Hospital.

Fazal Malik, an eyewitness and leader of Adezai Qaumi Lashkar, told Dawn that apparent target was police as they usually parked their vehicle, an armoured personnel carrier, at the place. Police and few volunteers of the lashkar were at a short distance from Adezai Chowk when the bomb exploded, he added.

The volunteers and policemen escaped unhurt miraculously, he said.

He added that he had already informed police about presence of militants in the areas.

It was need of the hour to take action against them but police were least bothered to do so, he said.

“It seems that police are also not interested in ensuring their own security otherwise they would have searched out the entire area after the blast but no search was conducted in this regard,” he said.

The lashkar chief said that it was third attack by militants on the same village. They had attacked the residence of former chief of the lashkar late Abdul Malik on Nov 7 and then fired missiles and rockets on the village on Nov 11 wherein three persons were killed. But the government failed to ensure protection to the area people, he alleged.

“The government should equip the volunteers of lashkar with arms and ammunitions or deploy additional forces in the area otherwise militants would further increase their activities,” he said.

An official of Matani police station said that it seemed the target was police.

He claimed that the overall law and order situation in the area was under control. It seemed that the explosive had been planted at night, he said.

The official said that the explosive weighed about five kilogram which was detonated through remote control.

He said that it would have caused huge damage if it had been planted at a congested place.

Most of the shopkeepers had already shifted from the bazaar to Matani owing to frequent terror incidents, he said.