Car bomb blast kills 95 in Peshawar
Wednesday, 28 Oct, 2009
Fire fighters extinguish burning shops at a market following a deadly car bomb blast in Peshawar on October 28, 2009. — AFP Metropolitan
Peshawar blasts’ mastermind arrested Peshawar blasts’ mastermind arrested PESHAWAR: A car bomb tore through a packed market in Peshawar on Wednesday, killing 95 people and trapping casualties under pulverised shops, in one of Pakistan's deadliest attacks.
The explosion detonated in a crowded street in the Meena Bazaar of Peshawar, one of the most congested parts of the volatile northwest city, sparking a huge blaze and ending in carnage routine shopping trips for scores of people.
The attack underscored the scale of the militant threat in Pakistan just hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad for three days of talks with political and military leaders.
‘There was a huge blast. There was smoke and dust everywhere. I saw people dying and screaming on the road,’ witness Mohammad Siddique told AFP.
Angry flames leapt out of burning wreckage and smoke billowed in the air as a building collapsed into dust and rubble. Police evacuated panicked residents from the smouldering wreckage and firemen hosed down the flames.
‘It was a car bomb. Some people are still trapped in a building. We are trying to rescue them,’ bomb disposal official Shafqat Malik told reporters.
‘We have received 86 dead bodies, 213 people were injured, we are facing a shortage of blood,’ Doctor Hamid Afridi, head of the Peshawar's main Lady Reading Hospital told AFP as staff declared an emergency.
A hospital official outside the casualty wing made a public announcement, appealing on people to donate blood as doctors spoke of harrowing scenes.
‘There are body parts. There are people. There are burnt people. There are dead bodies. There are wounded, I'm not in a position to count. But my estimate is that the death toll may rise to 70,’ said Doctor Muslim Khan.
Rescue workers and government officials had warned that casualties were trapped under collapsed shops at the bomb site, where a large blaze, a toppled building and the narrow streets hampered the relief effort.
‘I am counting the dead bodies, 86 are confirmed dead, the injured are more than 200, there are children and women among the dead,’ Mohammad Gul, a police official at the hospital, told AFP.
The area was one of the most congested parts of Peshawar and full of women's clothing shops and general market stalls popular in the city of 2.5 million.
‘A building structure has collapsed... People are trapped in the fire and buildings. This is the most congested area of the city,’ Sahibzada Mohammad Anees, a senior local administrative official, told a private TV channel.
Peshawar, a teeming metropolis, is a gateway to Pakistan's northwest tribal belt, where the military is pressing a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants blamed for some of the worst of the recent carnage.
Tensions have soared across Pakistan following a spike in violence blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists in which more than 240 people have died this month
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