At least 21 people, including six women and two children, were killed when a high-intensity bomb tore open a passenger bus in Gul Bela area on Charsadda Road in the outskirts of Peshawar on Friday.
Almost all of the victims were employees of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Secretariat and attached departments and belonged to North Hashtnagar area of Charsadda.
It was the deadliest attack in Peshawar in months that has been the target of choice for extremist and militants.
The attack left more than 40 people critically injured.
The bus had been rented by government to drop staff home after work, though it had some private passengers on board as well. When the bus, with employees and their families on board, reached Gul Bela area per routine, it was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
The IED ripped through the vehicle, instantly killing several passengers and injuring dozens in its trail. Civilians and volunteers rushed to the site and helped move the dead and injured to hospitals.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour confirmed 21 deaths and 39 injuries, adding that the condition of several of the injured was critical.
Terror attacks across the country have been on a decline ever since the government blocked supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan. But with the US upping its drone campaign in the Tribal Areas, Thursday’s attack on a madrassa in Quetta and Friday’s targeting of government employees might well be a message to the state.
Police officials and doctors said those killed included six women and two children. Two of the women were employees of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar.
Arsalan, a junior clerk in the provincial auditor general’s office, said he remembered asking the driver to stop at a mosque on the road for Friday prayers and then the explosion took place.
“I don’t remember what happened next because I fainted and came round in a hospital bed,” the 28-year-old, also with head and neck injuries, told AFP.
“The bomb was planted under the bus,” KP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters.
“We still can’t say how many government employees and private passengers were killed, but there were heavy human losses,” he added.
Hussain said the government was ready to hold talks with the militants to avoid further acts of terrorism.
He condemned the blast, saying it had been carried out to “spread panic among the people”. “We are ready to hold talks with the militants to save ourselves from terrorism,” he said.