PESHAWAR: A policemen was killed and eight others and a civilian suffered injuries in a bomb blast along the main GT Road near a Peshawar police station on Friday.

An official of the Gulbahar police station said the terrorist activity was aimed at the police’s Quick Response Force personnel riding a vehicle.

He said the improvised explosive device planted under the Arbab Sikandar Khan Khalil Flyover was detonated by remote control.

TTP claims responsibility for terrorist activity

The official said the injured were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital.

A source in the hospital said the deceased was Daud Khan of Charsadda, who passed away in the cardiovascular ward after undergoing a surgical procedure.

He said the injured included Mohammad Ilyas Khazana of Peshawar, Rahatullah of Tehkal Bala, Abdul Khaliq of Wadpaga, Zulfiqar of tehsil area of Peshawar, Naik Mohammad of Nowshera, Dilawar of Nothia and Mohammad Riaz of Swabi.

The source said Mohammad Ishfaq of Warsak Road, a student of a private college, was among the injured. He said two of the injured were discharged after being given first aid, while the others were admitted to different wards due to bone fractures.

The police investigators said the improvised explosive device was exploded by remote control and that a SIM card was recovered from the blast venue.

They said the bomb weighed around two kilogrammes, planted in a flower pot and went off with a big bang.

The investigators said in routine, the police’s Quick Response Force personnel began daily patrolling in the morning from the place, where the terrorist activity occurred.

They said the counter-terrorism department had registered a case against unidentified terrorists before beginning investigation.

After the blast, heavy contingents of police and security forces reached the place and cordoned off the area.

The blast also caused suspension of vehicular traffic on GT Road for some time.

Later in the day, the outlawed militant outfit, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the blast.

In an Urdu statement emailed to the media on Friday, spokesman for TTP Mohammad Khurasani said the QRF personnel had been targeted through ‘an anti-jammer remote control device.’

Also in the day, the local police arrested four suspected terrorists near Juma Khan Khwar area and seized an improvised explosive device, four Kalashnikovs and six detonators.

An official of Nasir Bagh police station said the arrested men wore Frontier Constabulary uniforms and rode an official vehicle.

He said the police stopped them on suspicion and held them over failure to prove identity. He said three of the arrested men belonged to Khyber Agency, while the fourth one was an Afghan national.

The official said the improvised explosive device weighed 16 kilogrammes.

He said the police were quizzing the suspects but it was not known yet if they had accomplices.

The official said the police had registered a case against them.

Meanwhile, a police spokesman said under the anti-terrorism National Action Plan, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police rounded up 607 suspects and recovered arms and ammunition in the province on Wednesday and Thursday.

He said the police seized 55 arms and ammunition of different kinds and 3,706 rounds of different bore in different parts of the province.

“During the operation, 770 houses and 240 hotels were checked and 19 cases registered against the violators. A total of 45 Afghan nationals were also arrested and cases against them were registered for failure to produce valid documents for stay in the country,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play