ISLAMABAD, Dec 6 (agencies): At least 27 people have been killed and scores injured in a suspected car bombing in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say.
The blast hit a heavily populated area outside a Shia mosque near the central Kissa Khwani bazaar. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
Recent violence in north-west Pakistan has included sectarian clashes as well as fighting between the army and Islamist militants.
The attack in Peshawar ripped through the bazaar, where people were shopping ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid.
Peshawar's main hospital has declared a state of emergency and the death toll is expected to rise.
The blast destroyed surrounding buildings, including a mosque, and a number of people were trapped under rubble.
Police spokesman Noor Mohammad said that six bodies had been recovered from the debris of two hotels and an adjoining house. Among the dead was a 12-year-old boy and a woman, he said.
Television footage showed survivors frantically carrying bloodied victims through the rubble to cars and ambulances as fire crews fought the flames.
"It shook the entire area like an earthquake," one witness told Reuters news agency.
"It was a huge and terrible explosion. As we reached here it was all burning. There was rubble all around." Another man caught up in the blast was Haji Rab Nawaz.
"We were in the mosque after finishing our evening prayers," he said. "Suddenly the blast happened. Stuff from the mosque roof fell down on us. The blast was very powerful, and I heard the voices of people injured for up to five minutes. It was horrible."Police officials said the bomb contained 20-25kg of explosives and seemed designed to spread fire.
The explosion left the narrow lanes of the bazaar strewn with human limbs and charred bodies, witnesses said.
Congested lanes around the scene of the blast made it difficult for rescuers to gain access, local media said.
A local hospital where more than a dozen bodies were taken was appealing for blood.
Doctor Sahib Khan said that some of the injured were in a critical condition.
Earlier in the day, six people died in what was believed to be a sectarian attack in the Orakzai tribal region.
Last month, a bomb went off just after evening prayers in the minority Shia mosque in Peshawar's Hashtnagri neighbourhood, injuring at least eight people.
There were also deadly bombings at a Shia Muslim funeral in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, and at a mosque in the tribal district of Bajaur.
Friday's attacks also come against the backdrop of army operations in north-west Pakistan against al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters, and tribesmen who support their cause.
Another report adds: Nuclear-armed Pakistan put its forces on high alert after a hoax caller pretending to be India's foreign minister spoke to President Asif Ali Zardari in a threatening manner on Nov. 28, two days after the militant attacks on Mumbai began, the Dawn newspaper reported Saturday.
The caller ignored Zardari's conciliatory language and directly threatened to take military action if Pakistan failed to act immediately against the supposed perpetrators of the slaughter in Mumbai.
Throughout the next 24 hours Pakistan's air force was put on "highest alert" as the military watched anxiously for any sign of Indian aggression, the report said.
A senior Pakistani government official told Reuters they were checking the Dawn report. Zardari is currently on an official visit to Turkey.
Tensions have been running high since India blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for the three-day rampage in the financial capital last week that killed 171 people.
"War may not have been imminent, but it was not possible to take any chances," Dawn quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying he caller was put through to Zardari because some senior members of the presidential staff decided to bypass standard procedures, including verification of the caller and involvement of diplomatic missions.
Dawn reported that the caller, posing as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also tried to telephone US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but due to specific checks by US officials the call was not put through.
The episode triggered intense international diplomacy, with some world leaders fearing India and Pakistan could slip into an accidental war, the newspaper said, sourcing its report to unnamed diplomatic, political and security officials.
The two countries, which both became nuclear weapons states in 1998, went to the brink of war in 2002 following a militant attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001.
According to Dawn, Rice called Mukherjee in the middle of the night to ask why he had adopted such a a threatening tone, but he assured her that he never spoke to Zardari.
Mukherjee said his discussions with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who had been in New Delhi that day, had been conducted in a cordial manner.
Thereafter there were frantic phone calls between Washington, Islamabad and New Delhi to cool the temperature and by Saturday evening on Nov. 29, calm had been restored.
It was during the hours of uncertainty that the Pakistani government decided to rescind its original offer to send the head of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency to New Delhi to help India in its investigation into the Mumbai attacks. Senior Pakistani security officers referred to the aggressive tone taken by the Indian foreign minister in a briefing to journalists on Nov. 29
27 killed as bomb hits Peshawar
FE Team | Published: December 07, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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