Alwaght- A bomb blast has ripped through a bus carrying government employees in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 15, injuring 40 more.
Around 40 other people were wounded as blast happened early on Wednesday in an army area of Peshawar city, situated 150 kilometers west of the capital, Islamabad.
Medical sources said three women were among the injured taken to the hospital. Five of the victims are reportedly in a critical condition.
Superintendent of Police Cantonment, Muhammad Kashif, said the blast was caused by explosive material planted inside the bus.
Bomb experts on the scene said eight kilograms of high-grade explosives were used in the attack.
The explosion took place as the bus was carrying government workers from Mardan district to their offices in the provincial capital city.
Windows of nearby buildings broke due to the force of the explosion.
This is the third time that a bus carrying government officials has been attacked in Pakistan in recent years.
On May 13, 2015, at least 45 people, including women and children, were killed when an explosion destroyed a bus in the country’s largest and most populous metropolitan city of Karachi.
A similar bus attack in Peshawar killed 19 government workers and injured 44 others on September 27, 2013.
No one has claimed responsibility. Suspicion likely is to fall on the Pakistani Taliban and their allied militants, who have been waging a war on the state for more than a decade, killing tens of thousands of people.
