Peshawar suicide bombing: FC thwarts attack on Iranian diplomat’s house

PESHAWAR: Three security personnel were killed and 10 others injured in a botched suicide attack on the residence of the Iranian consul general in an upscale neighbourhood of the provincial capital Monday afternoon. “It was a suicide attack. The bomber wanted to enter the residence of the consul general in the University Town area,” SSP Operations Najeebur Rehman Bagvi told The Express Tribune. “The bomber reached there in a white Mehran. He parked the car and rushed towards the main gate where he was challenged by the Frontier Constabulary personnel standing guard there,” he added. “They opened fire when the bomber didn’t stop despite repeated warnings,” SSP Bagvi said. “The gunshots triggered the explosives strapped to the body of the bomber before he could approach his target.” Two FC personnel were killed and 11 wounded in the subsequent blast. The casualties were driven to the nearby Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) where medics confirmed that they have received two bodies and 11 injured. One wounded FC man later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. The account was corroborated by eyewitnesses. “The FC guards deputed on the rooftop of the building and at a roadside picket opened fire on the bomber when he ignored repeated warnings,” one witness told The Express Tribune. After the blast, the FC personnel fired gunshots into the air for hours in an effort to ward off people from the area, which whipped up panic among the residents of University Town. The residence of the Iranian consul general and the adjacent consulate building remained safe in the attack. SP Cantt Faisal Kamran told The Express Tribune that the consul general’s residence could be the target of the bomber. “The dead and the injured belonged to the Frontier Constabulary who were standing guard at the buildings,” he added. Initially, the Bomb Disposal Squad cleared the bomber’s vehicle but hours later, they found two more powerful bombs planted in the car that were subsequently defused. “The bomber carried around 6kgs of high explosives in his vest,” a BDS official said, adding that the bomber’s car was rigged with 60kgs of explosives. According to AIG Special Branch Shafqat Malik, who also heads the BDS, the bomb found in the car was a timed device. “Police, rescuers and media persons could have been the possible target of this thwarted attack,” he added. In other violence, a string of blasts rocked different neighbourhoods of Peshawar. A man, identified as Tayaf Khan, was fatally wounded when a bomb was remotely triggered in Suliman Khel village, on the edge of the city. Khan died in the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), according to the police. “Khan’s family has been the target of militants for the past few years and their houses have been targeted in the past,” a local official told The Express Tribune. In a second incident, a man named Gul Inayat Shah was critically wounded in an explosion in Afghan Colony early Monday morning. The explosive device was attached to the main gate of his house and when he opened the gate the bomb went off. Separately, the house of Railways employee Azizullah was targeted with a low-intensity bomb in Shahbaz Town, Yakatot. The bomb caused no casualties, though the main gate was damaged. In a fourth incident, miscreants lobbed a hand grenade at the house of Khan Akbar in Badhu Samarbagh locality of Pharipura. No casualties were reported. Published in The Express Tribune, February 25th, 2014.