JOIN USThe second of two explosions in northwest Pakistan was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive vest when a large number of people gathered after the first blast, police said today.
The first explosion at Khyber Super Market in Peshawar late last night was a low-intensity one caused by a timed device hidden in the bathroom of a hotel.
The second blast was triggered by a suicide bomber on a motorbike, bomb disposal squad chief Shafqat Malik told reporters.
Police said they had found the head and body parts of the bomber.The attack, one of the deadliest since the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden in a US raid, occurred in an area with popular eateries, hostels for students and residential flats.
A journalist was among the dead. Over 100 people, including eight policemen, were injured, some of them seriously. Police said the suicide bomber struck when a large crowd, including reporters, policemen and rescue workers, had gathered in the market after the first blast. Though Al Qaida and militant groups have vowed to avenge bin Laden's killing with attacks in Pakistan and the US, the Taliban denied they were involved in yesterday's attack.
Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told reporters in the northwest that his group was not behind the attack in Peshawar.He claimed his group targeted only the security forces and not innocent people.