PESHAWAR: At least six people were injured in a blast in Peshawar’s Hayatabad area on Tuesday, police said, adding that the target of the attack was a convoy of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC).
It was an attack on an FC convoy that was moving through Hayatabad’s phase 6, said Cantt Superintendent of Police (SP) Waqas Rafi while speaking to the media near the site of the blast.
Footage being broadcast on television shows a crowd of people on the road where the blast purportedly took place. The charred remains of a vehicle can be seen in the distance.
SP Rafi confirmed that six people were injured in the blast who he said were taken to a nearby hospital.
A bomb disposal squad was collecting evidence from the scene to ascertain the nature of the incident, he added.
In his media talk, he said “we are looking into the matter and collecting further details. The area has been cordoned off”.
“We will get to the bottom of this matter, and the culprits involved in the incident will be exposed,” he pledged.
Separately, medical director of the Hayatabad Medical Complex, professor Shehzad Akbar Khan, confirmed to Reuters that the hospital received two people who were wounded by the explosion and that both were in stable condition.
He said the remaining injured were taken to Combined Military Hospital.
Condemnations pour in
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was among the first ones from the government to condemn the attack, saying that terrorists and planners of such incidents could not “escape the grip of law”.
He prayed for the quick recovery of the injured, a statement issued by the PPP said.
Bilawal’s father and former president, Asif Ali Zardari, gave a similar message in his condemnation posted on the PPP’s Twitter.
Former premier and PTI chief Imran Khan also condemned the attack and prayed for the quick recovery of the injured.
“It is worrying how terror attacks are increasing in KP and Balochistan. Our security forces are almost on a daily basis being targeted and giving sacrifices,” said on Twitter.
Uptick in terror activities
Pakistan has seen an uptick in terror activities, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, after the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government in November last year.
A report released this month by think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said the first half of the current year witnessed a steady and alarming rise in terror and suicide attacks, claiming the lives of 389 people across the country.
In a press conference in June, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that the security forces conducted 13,619 intelligence operations this year in which 1,172 terrorists were killed or arrested.
“On a daily basis, over 77 operations are being carried out by armed forces, police, intelligence agencies, and other law enforcement agencies to rid of the menace of terrorism,” he said.
DG Sharif added that 95 soldiers embraced martyrdom in these operations.
Today’s incident follows two attacks on the military earlier this month in Balochistan. Both attacks took place on the same day and the martyrdom of 12 soldiers in the two incidents was the military’s highest single-day death toll from terrorist attacks reported this year.
One of the attacks was launched at Zhob garrison in which nine soldiers were martyred while security forces killed five terrorists in retaliatory action.
According to Zhob District Commissioner (DC) Azeem Kakar, a civilian woman was also killed in the incident after being caught in the crossfire while five other civilians were left injured.
Prior to that, security forces came under fire from militants in Sui during an operation in the area.
“During the fire exchange, three brave soldiers, having fought gallantly, embraced shahadat (martyrdom) while two terrorists were sent to hell during the operation,” the military’s media affairs wing said.
Two days after the incidents, the army expressed concerns on the “safe havens and liberty of action available to” TTP in Afghanistan.
“It is expected that the interim Afghan government would not allow the use of its soil to perpetrate terror against any country, in the real sense and in line with commitments made in the Doha agreement,” an Inter-Service Public Relations statement said.
“The involvement of Afghan nationals in acts of terrorism in Pakistan is another important concern that needs to be addressed. Such attacks are intolerable and would elicit an effective response from the security forces of Pakistan,” it added.
The army top brass reiterated the assertion again yesterday at the 258th Corps Commanders’ Conference while Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also accused the Afghan Taliban of not honouring their commitments under the Doha accord, i.e. that they would not allow Afghan soil to be used against others.
Previously too, Islamabad had repeatedly raised concerns over the use of Afghan soil by militants for cross-border terrorism.
