Summary The bomb was planted near the police lines and girls college at Peshawar Chowk.
KOHAT (Dunya News / AFP) - At least thirteen people were killed and more than fifteen others were injured in a blast at Peshawar Chowk here on Sunday.
The wounded were shifted to Liaquat Memoria Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital for medical treatment.
According to police, the blast occurred outside girls college near police lines on Peshawar Chowk.
According to Bomb Disposal Squad, five to six kilograms of explosives was planted in a cooking oil container and placed near the bus stop in the city centre before being detonated remotely. Law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area and started collecting evidences.
Talking to media, Inspector General of Police (IG) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Nasir Durani said that a pick-up carrying passengers was targeted near the bus stop. He said security has been put on high alert in Peshawar and other parts due to terrorist threats.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain have strongly condemned the act of terrorism in Kohat.
The attack came hours after Pakistan air force jets bombed militant hideouts in the tribal district of Khyber, killing 20 suspected insurgents and destroying two hideouts, according to security sources.
On Saturday, a roadside bomb targeting a local leader of a nationalist party in Buner district in the northwest killed three people and wounded two.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday s blast.
The banned TTP has been waging a bloody campaign against the Pakistani state since 2007 which has cost thousands of lives.
Peace talks between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the government stalled last week due to a recent surge in insurgent attacks and a claim by a Taliban faction that it had killed 23 kidnapped soldiers.
Government mediators have set a Taliban ceasefire as a precondition for another round of talks.
But TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid on Friday blamed Islamabad for the deadlock and urged the state to declare a ceasefire first.
According to an AFP report, 84 people have been killed in 17 attacks across the country since January 29, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced formal talks with the Taliban.
