Bomber unleashes mayhem in packed Charsadda market

CHARSADDA At least 32 people were killed and 100 others wounded in a suicide car bomb blast at congested Farooq-e-Azam Chowk here on Tuesday. The blast was so severe that it damaged signboards and several vehicles including two buses. It jolted the entire city of Charsadda and smashed windowpanes of the nearby buildings. The injured were shifted to District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital Charsadda and Peshawar. Dr Manzoorullah of DHQ Hospital told journalists that at least 24 dead bodies had been brought to the hospital. Some critically injured people were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. Soon after the blast, police and security forces cordoned off the area. Meanwhile, NWFP Governor Awais Ahmad Ghani, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain have strongly condemned the deadly bomb blast and termed it a coward act of terrorism. They said war on terror would continue and soon militants would be defeated. Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, Chief of Pakistan People Party (Sherpao) has also condemned the Charsadda blast and expressed sorrow and grief over the loss of innocent lives. AFP adds: It was the third militant attack in NWFP in as many days. The vehicle rigged with explosives blew up on a road lined with fruit and juice shops, ripping off shop roofs and littering the ground with slippers, human flesh and broken push carts, witnesses said. It was a terrible scene. There were injured and wounded everywhere, one witness told reporters. I joined the relief and rescue operation and myself removed about a dozen casualties. We have at present 25 dead. Six of them are children and three are women, Doctor Zulfiqar Ahmad told AFP at the main hospital where anguished relatives were sobbing. There are 42 wounded people, he said. Six seriously wounded were taken to Peshawar. A senior police official in the district confirmed the death toll was 25 and that all the victims were civilians who had been in the area was so crowded when the bomber unleashed mayhem at around 4:15 pm. It was a suicide car bomb blast. Twenty-five people died and more than 40 were injured - all of them are civilians, senior police official Liaquat Ali told AFP at the bomb site.