PESHAWAR: A traffic warden was among six people injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast within the jurisdiction of the Faqirabad police station on Friday.

Police said the incident took place in front of the Charsadda bus stand on Charsadda Road in the northeast part of the city. The bomb was planted in the road median and went off with a big bang, leaving six people, including a traffic warden, injured.

Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Faizi said that the injured were taken to Lady Reading Hospital. The injured were identified as traffic warden Sajjad, Hazratullah, Hidayat, Fayyaz, Almas and Musa Khan. Doctors at the hospital said that two of the injured were in a critical condition.

ASP Faqirabad Waseem Riaz told Dawn that police believed that the traffic warden was the target of the IED attack.

He said that the remote-controlled IED weighed around 1.5kgs and was packed in a can of ghee which was kept under the central median of the road.

He said that all those injured in the blast were in a stable condition; however, the traffic warden’s leg had to be amputated.

The Counter-Terrorism Department has registered a first information report and started investigation.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016