Car bomb at Pakistan bus station kills 12

Feb 23, 2012, 8:04 GMT

Islamabad - A car bomb exploded at a bus station in Pakistan's north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 34, police and health officials said.

The bombing took place in the outskirts of provincial capital Peshawar as the bus station was crowded with passengers.

Dr Rahim Jaan, the head of the city's Lady Reading Hospital, said that the facility had received 12 bodies and more than 34 injured. Two of those killed were children.

'The death toll might rise since some of the injured are still in critical condition,' he said.

Senior police official Umar Riaz said that it was a remote-control bomb, packed with almost 40 kilograms of high explosives to cause maximum destruction.

Television footage showed several charred vehicles around the site. Between 25 and 30 vehicles were destroyed or damaged, witness Sher Gul told dpa by telephone.

The bus stand was used by passengers heading to North Waziristan, one of seven tribal districts and a stronghold of al-Qaeda-linked Taliban groups. The area has been subjected to repeated US drone attacks.

No group had claimed responsibility for the bomb, but the Taliban have been known to carry out such attacks to avenge security operations against them and the government's alleged connivance with the US drone strikes.

Pakistani forces have undertaken several actions against the militants in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border but the authorities still have only limited control in the region.