Suicide car bombing in Peshawar kills 50, injures 120

Suicide car bombing in Peshawar kills 50, injures 120

Associated Press Tags : Peshawar blast, Pakistan, suicide bombing Posted: Friday , Oct 09, 2009 at 1931 hrs Peshawar:

The attack in the Khyber Bazaar area came as Pak army prepares for another operation.

At least 50 people were killed and 120 injured when a suspected Taliban suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car in a busy Peshawar market, the deadliest attack in six months that pushed Pakistan to vow that army would march into militants' den to flush them out.

The blast, in which the bomber used 50 kg of artillery shells and machine gun bullets, ripped through the Khyber Bazar market around noon when a packed bus was passing the suicide bomber's vehicle.

The explosion left blood-soaked bodies strewn on the road in the famous market of the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province and the bus reduced to a mass of charred and twisted metal.

"The car was moving when the blast occurred, which indicates the presence of a suicide bomber," said Assistant IGP Shafqat Malik of the bomb disposal squad.

Fifty people were killed and 120 wounded in the blast, said Shahib Gul, the deputy medical superintendent at Lady Reading Hospital. A woman and nine children were among the dead. Gul said the death toll could rise as 22 of the injured are in a critical condition.