KP chief minister escapes bombing at rally, six killed

At least six people were killed and more than 20 others injured in a high-intensity bomb explosion near the GT Road in Nowshera on Monday.
The explosion occurred just as participants of a public gathering arranged by the Awami National Party (ANP) were dispersing.
Besides others, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and several senior ANP leaders had addressed the public meeting.
Police officials said around four to five kilogrammes of explosive were fixed to a motorcycle, which detonated when the people started to leave the venue.
Authorities have so far confirmed six casualties and injuries to more than 20 people. Except a few policemen, almost all of the victims were ANP workers from Nowshera. The injured were admitted to hospitals in Nowshera and Peshawar, where condition of several of the injured was said to be critical.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack as yet. Official said Hoti and his cabinet members had left the venue minutes before the explosion.
It was the third bomb in five days to hit the northwest, which in recent months had seen a decline in violence linked to a local Taliban insurgency directed against a government allied to the US-led war against terror.
“The bomb was planted on a motorbike and the target was the meeting,” local police chief Mohammad Hussain said.
“The bomb carried about three to four kilogrammes of explosives, it was detonated using a remote-controlled device,” Hussain told AFP.
The bomb was attached near the fuel tank of the motorcycle, parked about 150 metres from the venue of the meeting, he said.
On Friday, three suicide bombers blew themselves up at a police station in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing four officers a day after a car bombing killed 13 people at a bus station on the outskirts of Peshawar.