PESHAWAR: At least four policemen were killed and 15 others wounded as a suicide car bomber attacked a checkpost in the Pir Bala area on the outskirts of the city, police said on Wednesday.“The vehicle was coming from a tribal area into Peshawar city. It was full of explosives,' AFP quoted CCPO Liaquat Ali as saying. “Two policemen are in a critical condition,' he said.
He said the attacker apparently wanted to enter the city, but detonated the explosives when stopped at the checkpost, adding he might have targeted a high-profile location in the city.
“I was returning from the mosque after dawn prayers when I saw a vehicle speed towards the police post,' Saadat Ali, a 21-year-old university student with steel pellet injuries in his shoulder told AFP from hospital. “Police officials from the post opened fire and then I heard a huge blast. There was thick smoke and I passed out,' he added.
According to the bomb disposal squad, 180 kilogrammes of explosive material was used in the blast that also damaged a mosque and seven houses nearby.