PESHAWAR: At least nine people were killed and 25 injured, five women among them, when a bomber blew himself up near a police APC at a filling station in a busy market in the Battathal area.

Several vehicles, pushcarts and the fuel station’s building and equipment were destroyed and human flesh was splattered at the place.

“I saw the bomber coming towards us but he rushed so fast that we could not shoot him and jumped onto the APC,” Sarband Police Sub-Inspector Bukhari Shah told Dawn.

He said he and five constables were sitting in the APC after having lunch at a restaurant before Friday prayers when the attack took place. Policemen sitting in a jeep parked at a distance were also injured, he said.

The police official, who has survived several encounters with terrorists, said the attack appeared to have been carried out by the Lashkar-i-Islam based in Khyber Agency.

Additional police personnel arrived at the place after the explosion and took the injured to hospitals.

Peshawar SSP (Operations) Najeebur Rehman said four policemen were among those killed.

The area, he said, was close to Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal region and a large number of people came there. A bus stand was nearby.

Bomb Disposal Unit chief AIG Shafqat Malik said that six to eight kilograms of explosives had been used in the suicide vest. Legs of the bomber with carbon traces had been found.

According to Rescue Service 1122 spokesman Bilal Ahmed Faizi, the injured and the bodies of the deceased were taken to the Lady Reading and Khyber Teaching Hospitals and Hayatabad Medical Complex.

An LRH official said 40-year-old Mehnat Bibi of Bara was among those killed. Two mutilated bodies could not be recognised.

An official in the HMC said that a child and a woman had died there.Other victims included Farman, Jamil, Naseem, Abdur Rahim, Habibullah and Asad.

A witness, Tahir Shah, said most of the victims were selling fruit and vegetables in the market.

He said the area had faced frequent attacks and roadside blasts in the past but in recent days it had been largely peaceful and people had started going to markets.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Engineer Shaukatullah said the elements involved in the terrorist act would be brought to justice.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak announced a compensation of Rs500,000 for the heirs of each person killed and Rs200,000 for the injured. The injured policemen will be paid compensation under a police package.

He ordered immediate payment of compensation and separate inquiries by the district administration and police.

He said the aim of the attack was to spread a feeling of insecurity among people and demoralise the security forces.

He said the real faces of anti-state elements had been exposed through such cruel acts of terrorism after the beginning of peace negotiations and announcement of a ceasefire by the Taliban and they would be dealt with sternly. He said such elements would soon meet their fate and the people of the province would get the fruit of their unprecedented sacrifices in the shape of durable peace.