A car bomb ripped through a restaurant in the city's posh Hayatabad township on Friday, leaving 15 people injured.The injured were taken to the Hayatabad Medical Complex, where two of them were said to be in a critical condition.
The blast in Phase-II of the township damaged the Evergreen Complex, which also has a wedding hall, smashed windowpanes of nearby buildings and houses and snapped power cables.
The restaurant is located near the office of Hayatabad sub-divisional police officer, Bagh-i-Naran and Al-Zarghoni Mosque.
SSP (operations) Mohammad Karim Khan told reporters that the device contained 50-60kg explosives. The bomb planted in a black car was detonated by remote control.
He said police were regularly checking suspected vehicles but there were about 100 exit points and all of them needed detectors for scanning vehicles.
Police released a sketch of the suspect drawn on the basis of description given by eyewitnesses.
District Coordination Officer Sahibzada Mohammad Anis told reporters that two suspects had been taken into custody.
According to witnesses, a young man with thick hair and moustache arrived at the restaurant in a black car and stood there for some time eating grapes. When he started walking away, a watchman of the restaurant called him, but the man walked towards the main entrance of the complex and moments later the car exploded.
A police officer told Dawn that engine and chassis numbers of the car had been found.
An official said that police and Frontier Corps personnel fired into the air to disperse people who had gathered after the blast. This was done, he said, because there were reports that another blast might take place.
NWFP Information Minster Mian Iftikhar Hussain told journalists that militants wanted to terrorise people but the government would never bow to saboteurs and continue to fight them.
He said the government was determined to face challenges and protect lives and property of the people.
This was the fifth blast in Peshawar since Sep 26. The other four attacks claimed 82 lives.