11 injured in bomb blast in NW Pakistan

At least 11 people were injured on Thursday morning in a bomb blast in Pakistan's northwestern metropolitan city of Peshawar, local media and officials said. According to reports, the blast took place near the shops in the Rampura bazaar of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's northwestern restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Rescue teams reached the site and started rescue work. All the injured persons were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital of the city where three of them were reported in critical condition. Eyewitness told media that the blast took place when a shopkeeper tried to open the shutter gate of his grocery shop in which 11 people were injured, four shops and four vehicles were destroyed. Bomb disposal squad confirmed the usage of explosive in the blast and said the bomb was planted in an empty cooking oil tin besides the shop while linking its trigger with the gate of the shop. Head of the bomb disposal squad Shafqaut Ullah Malik, while talking to media, said that around three kilogram explosive was used in the blast. "We have already diffused more than 600 IEDs in the city during this year," said Malik, adding "the purpose of these small blasts is to create panic among people." No group or militant organization claimed responsibility of this incident yet. The same kind of bomb blast took place on Wednesday evening when a bomb ripped through a cloth market of the city when people were busy in shopping. At least 12 people were injured in the blast. Peshawar has been proven the most ideal and soft target of the terrorists. Hundreds of civilian and policemen have been killed in the city in the result of militants' attacks or bomb blasts after the start of U.S.-led war on terror in Afghanistan. On Aug. 11 this year, a women suicide bomber attacked a police check post in the same area and killed five policemen and another passerby woman while injuring 12 others. Just after this incident on the same day, a bomb that was planted in the handcart exploded near a police vehicle, killing five policemen and inujring 15 others in the Lahori Gate area of the city.