Daily Times

MARDAN: At least 11 persons, including two traffic wardens, sustained injuries on Tuesday morning in a remote-controlled bomb explosion in Shaheedano Bazaar in the limits of Hoti Police Station, official and local sources said.

They said an improvised explosive device (IED) planted outside a shop in Shaheedano Bazaar in Toru Chowk went off at about 08:00am, injuring 11 civilians, including two traffic constables who were identified as Gul Karim and Abu Bakar. The other wounded people were identified as Baz Muhammad, Farman Ali, Zafar, Yahya, Sher Wali, Mohammad Jamal, Asad and Shahid Muhammad. The injured were shifted to the district headquarters hospital, however, according to the hospital sources, their condition was stated to be stable. District Police Officer Faisal Shahzad said that about one kilogram explosive material was used in the IED. He said that traffic constables were the target. Following the explosion, police rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area. Personnel of the Bomb Disposal Unit collected the pieces of evidence from the blast scene. A search operation was also conducted in the surrounding areas to hunt down the miscreants. However, there was no word on any arrest till filing of the report. Several such attacks have been carried out in recent months. In June, two traffic police personnel were injured in a remote-controlled bomb blast at Akbar Phatak, just 100 metres from the residence of former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti.