Peshawar blasts Two teacher sisters die

Two teacher sisters die in Peshawar blasts
Peshawar: Two consecutive roadside blasts here Wednesday left two female schoolteachers dead and seven persons, including three children, injured.

A police official said the blasts took place in quick succession at Shagai Hindkian near Hassan Garhi, a suburban locality. "These were remote-controlled blasts. We have found battery cells and other material which show that the bombs were triggered by a remote-control device," he added.

The first blast took place when a private school van was passing through the area, an eyewitness said. The blast completely damaged the van and injured all the people on board, he said, adding that the bomb was planted under an electricity pole.

The blast was immediately followed by another one, which triggered panic in the area. Soon after the blast, rescue teams and volunteers rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to the Lady Reading Hospital where emergency had already been declared.

At the hospital, two female teachers, who happened to be sisters and were serving as principal and vice-principal of the private school, succumbed to their injuries, hospital sources said. A driver and six students were admitted to the hospital. One of the students was stated to be in a serious condition.

An official of the bomb disposal unit said that seven kilograms of explosive materials had been used in the first blast and four kilograms in the second one. Another three-kilogram device could not explode, which the bomb disposal official defused, the official said.

Those killed in the incident were identified as Nazakat (60) and Sameena (55), daughters of Abdur Rasheed and residents of Nishtarabad. The injured included Arifa Akhtar (23), Afsheen (20), Nousheen, Abdul Wahab (5), Mahnoor (5), Ms Mumtaz (17) and driver Mumtaz (50).

Security in the city was tightened after the blasts. Police at all the important places and already established checkpoints were put on red alert to avert any further mishap. Police also started search operation in the localities close to the site of the blast. No arrest was, however, made till filing of this report.