By NNN-APP,
Peshawar : A suicide bomber blew himself up on Sunday at busy PRC market in a cantonment area in Mardan district, killing at least 12 persons and injuring 18 others, police said.
The suicide bomber, thought to be a teenager, blew himself up in front of the gate of a bakery while he was trying to enter it. Police said that four security personnel were killed in the attack. Eyewitnesses said that blood and human flesh littered the ground outside bakery shop while smoke billowed into the sky.
Police cordoned off the area soon after the blast. No person was allowed to enter the site of the blast. Police and local people picked mutilated bodies from the scene and shifted them to hospital.
Emergency has been declared in Mardan hospitals while the critically injured have been shifted to Peshawar. The blast was so powerful that some victims were hurled into the air.
The explosion was heard up to the distance of five kilometres. Bodies, limbs, blood stained shoes and clothes lay all over the place. Cell phones of some victims kept ringing after the blast.
Some of the deceased identified; are Tariq, Kamran, Yasar, Raza, Iftikhar, Shezad, Sirtaj, Sheriaz, Khan Muhammad, Mehbob Ali, Ehtesham and Iftikhar.
The NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti strongly condemned the blast and called it an effort to sabotage the current peace process in the province.
The Chief Minister in a statement issued here announced a compensation of Rs.100,000 each to the heirs of the dead while Rs fifty thousand each for the injured person. The CM also directed to further tighten the security in the province to prevent any untoward incident. He said that blast was aimed at sabotaging peace efforts initiated by the Government of NWFP.
NWFP Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain has condemned the Mardan blast and expressed his sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives.
In a statement issued here, the minister said the provincial government would continue to hold the peace talks, which he said, were proceeding positively.
He said, however, some disgruntled elements desired to sabotage peace talks but they would not succeed in their nefarious designs.