DHAKA: Twin blasts near the Qissa Khawani market in Peshawar on Sunday killed 37 people and wounded at least 103 others.

‘The blast killed at least 37 people,’ the top local administration official Sahebzada Muhammad Anis said, reports dawn.com.

Dr Arshad Javaid, a senior official at Lady Reading Hospital, confirmed the toll and said at least 103 people had been injured.

The blasts, which took place at 11am in the morning, set shops and surrounding vehicles aflame. At least 50 shops were either damaged or completely destroyed.

The first blast was relatively smaller, and has been likened to a hand grenade. The second was much stronger and more destructive.

According to AIG Bomb Disposal Unit Shafkat Malik, 200 kilogram worth of explosives were used in a car parked near the market. He added that the blast was done via remote control.

‘In fact, the whole car, which had been parked along the roadside, was converted into a remote controlled bomb,’ he said.

Provincial information minister Shaukat Yusufzai stated that the Peshawar Police Station was the main target of the two blasts. However, local police officials do not believe the police station was the target of the blasts.

‘Police station does not seem to be the target as it was away from the attack site,’ said bomb disposal chief Shafqat Malik. He added that ‘it looks like the market was the target’.

There was terror amongst the people in the area, who were helping each other out.

BDST: 2005 HRS, SEPT 29, 2013
RoR/Jck