By IANS,
Peshawar : At least two people were killed and over 10 injured Wednesday when a powerful blast ripped through a crowded market in this Pakistani city.
The blast took place in Peepal Mandi in the old city of Peshawar, which is the capital of the restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Two people were killed and more than 10 injured the bomb blast, Xinhua news agency reported.
Several shops were extensively damaged in the blast. The roofs were blown off and the walls collapsed, just five days after a bombing outside a restaurant in the city.
Panic-stricken shopkeepers rushed to help the injured.
The terror strike came soon after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a three-day visit to Pakistan Wednesday morning.
Pakistan has been witnessing a string of terror attacks, even as the army continues to assault against the Taliban in South Waziristan.
The latest wave of militant violence started with a suicide bombing at the offices of the UN World Food Programme in Islamabad Oct 5. Five employees of the agency were killed.
The most audacious attack came on Oct 10 when 10 terrorists in military uniform laid siege to the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. At least 19 people, including nine raiders, died in the 22-hour standoff. One militant was arrested.
On Oct 15, gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed two police academies and the offices of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore. A car bomber struck at a police station in the northwestern town of Kohat. At least 38 people including 11 insurgents were killed in a single day.
A twin suicide bombing Oct 20 at the International Islamic University here killed seven people.
On Oct 22, Brigadier Moinuddin Ahmed, who was the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, was gunned down in Islamabad along with another soldier.
A day later, 25 people were killed and 27 injured in a series of blasts across Pakistan. Eighteen people died in a landmine explosion in Mohmand Agency while seven were killed when a suicide bomber struck at an air force base in Attock district. Eight people were injured in the Peshawar bombing.