A suicide bomber wearing a jacket packed with explosives and steel pellets blew himself up on Thursday at a police check post near a missionary school on a busy road in Peshawar, killing at least five people and injuring 25 others on the Christmas eve in the latest in a slew of terror attacks across Pakistan.
The attacker detonated his suicide jacket when he was stopped by policemen at the post outside the State Life Insurance Corporation building on the Mall Road in Peshawar cantonment at around 11 am local time.
A policeman was among the five persons killed, police and hospital officials said.
Several policemen and women were among the 25 injured in the attack, the second suicide blast here within three days.
Fifteen of the injured were taken to the state-run Lady Reading Hospital and officials described the condition of four of them as serious.
The Mall Road is a high-security zone where a missionary school, an office of the Pakistan International Airlines and a Shia community centre are located. There is also an army check post on the road.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of Christmas when the country's minority Christians were preparing to celebrate the festival.
Witnesses said they had seen body parts of the bomber lying scattered at the site of the blast. Several cars were also damaged by the explosion.
Ambulances and private vehicles rushed the injured to nearby hospitals.
Grainy closed circuit TV camera footage aired on news channels showed a car taking the impact of the blast.
Pedestrians ran in panic after the blast, which sent up a cloud of dust and smoke.
Officials of the bomb disposal squad said the attacker's jacket was packed with eight to ten kilograms of explosives and ball bearings.
Other officials said the bomber had probably intended to target Saddar Bazar, one of Peshawar's busiest commercial areas located near the Mall Road.
"He was stopped here and during that search, he exploded himself. The target could have been Saddar Bazar or any other place," district administration chief Shahibzada Anees told reporters.
Provincial Senior Minister Bashir Bilour initially told the media that two bombers were involved in the strike but witnesses said they had seen only one attacker blowing himself up after he was stopped by police.
Bilour said the army would be called in if the provincial government felt this was necessary to maintain law and order in Peshawar during the sensitive month of Muharram. He ruled out the possibility of talks with militants.
The blast came two days after a suicide bomber struck the Peshawar Press Club killing four persons and injuring over 20, including journalists, in the first such attack targeting media persons.
Peshawar has borne the brunt of a wave of suicide attacks and bombings that has killed over 500 across Pakistan since October.
The government has blamed these attacks on the Taliban, against whom the army has launched a major offensive in the northwestern tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned today's suicide attack.
In separate messages, they expressed their resolve not to be deterred by such acts of cowardice and to take all measures to eliminate terrorism from the country. PTI
