Peshawar, December 07: Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar shook again on Monday with an explosion in a vehicle near a crowded court complex in the heart of the city, killing two people and wounding 20.
Witnesses said the blast occurred in an auto-rickshaw outside the sessions court complex on Jail Road in Peshawar. About 20 people were injured in the attack, six of them seriously.
Police cordoned off the area and sealed key roads as ambulances took the injured to nearby hospitals.
Authorities are still investigating the nature of the blast.
The explosion sparked a fire that destroyed several cars.
A large number of people were present in the court complex, which is located near several sensitive installations, including a hostel for provincial legislators.
The building at the blast scene housed district and lower level courts.
Peshawar has been hit the hardest by bombings blamed on militants. Aside from a loss of life, the violence has also had a psychological and financial toll.
Pakistan’s Army, which heavily supported militant groups in their war against the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, now faces a stubborn Taliban insurgency on its own soil and mounting US pressure to root out Islamist fighters in tribal border areas.
In a reminder of serious security challenges the Army faces, militants attacked a mosque near Pakistan’s army headquarters in Rawalpindi last week, killing at least 40 people, including Army officers, just a 30-minute drive from the capital Islamabad.
-Agencies