Daily Times

In what is being described as a major breakthrough in investigation into the blast outside the Peshawar High Court, police on Monday claimed to have arrested a key suspect in Peshawar.

The police, on a tip-off, conducted raid at a house in Peshawar and reportedly arrested a rickshaw driver in injured condition. The suspect was later shifted to an undisclosed place for further investigations.

Police sources said the bomb that exploded outside the court earlier in the day had been planted in rickshaw of the suspect arrested in the raid. At least 11 people, including a policeman, had been injured in the explosion.

Rescue officials had shifted the injured to the Lady Reading Hospital for treatment. Hospital sources said that one of the injured was in a critical condition.

About five to six kilogrammes of explosive material was used in the blast, City Police Officer Muhammad Ali Gandapur said while quoting an initial report prepared by the bomb disposal unit.

Earlier, police believed the explosion to be a cylinder blast in an auto-rickshaw. Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Zahoor Afridi had said police and bomb disposal unit teams had reached the site of the incident and added that the police were investigating it further.