Bomb Blast Kills Policeman in Peshawar

Bomb Blast Kills Policeman in Peshawar

Bomb blast kills policeman in Peshawar

By Ali Hazrat Bacha
Monday, 08 Jun, 2009 | 07:04 PM PST |

PESHAWAR: Unidentified terrorists blew up a police van, killing of one police personnel and wounding another at the main Akhun Baba Road in Hazarkhwani area of Peshawar on Monday.

Peshawar SSP (operations) Abdul Ghafoor Afridi told dawn that the blast occurred in the limits of the Yakatut Police Station where police had cordoned off the area.

He said efforts were being made to arrest the accused involved in the crime. He said several sensitive areas had already been cordoned off in this regard.

The police, he said had already been alerted and they had established check points at all entry and exit points to check movement of any suspected vehicles and pedestrians, making an entry into the city was very difficult and that was why they had targeted the police.

An official of the Bomb disposal Squad said that the explosives weighed from 40 to 50 kilogram which were planted in a pressure cooker like cylinder and blasted through remote control at about 4.20.

He said the bomb was so powerful that it made a four foot deep and 10 foot wide crater in the road.

An eyewitness Basher Khan Mohmand told reporters that he saw a huge blast and the police van tore into pieces. A police personnel with multiple wounds, he said was lying on the road who was then rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital by his colleagues

A source in the hospital told Dawn that the policeman had already succumbed to his wounds prior to shifting to the emergency, saying that he had sustained serious injuries on his head, chest and abdomen.

Gohar Khan, a police officer on the blast site told this correspondent that the driver Aamir Nazwaz, who belonged to Nishtarabad Peshawar, was sitting in the police van, listening to a wireless message while other officers were standing at a distance, keeping watch on suspects.

It is to be mentioned that the blast took place on a road with a madressa on one side and the shrine of the famous saint Akhun Baba on the other side where hundreds of people come on a daily basis.

An official of the Yakatut Police Station said that a case against unidentified terrorists had been register