At least 8 people including children have embraced martyrdom while 112 others sustained severe wounds as a massive explosion hit seminary in Peshawar’s Dir Colony on early Tuesday.
According to Superintendent of Police (SP) City Peshawar Waqar Azeem, the blast occurred in the main hall after an unidentified man took a bag containing five to six kilograms of explosives inside the seminary. The nature of the blast is yet to be ascertained, he added.
Peshawar Chief Capital Police Officer (CCPO) Mohammad Ali Gandapur also confirmed the blast and said two teachers were among the wounded.
No threat has been received regarding blast on the seminary. The investigation of the explosion is underway after collection of evidence from the scene, he told.
A rescue operation has been launched to shift the affectees to the nearby hospitals for medical assistance. The security personnel told that more casualties are feared as some of the victims are in critical condition.
Information Minister Shibli Faraz has strongly condemned the blast at a seminary in Peshawar and said that those behind the attack on students have nothing to do with humanity. The sordid designs of those trying to stoke instability in the country will be foiled, he added.
Condoling with the bereaved families, the Information Minister prayed for the recovery of those injured in the blast.
Violence in Pakistan has declined in recent years following a series of military operations along the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan Army had launched its operation in mid-2014 to wipe out militant bases in the area and end the near decade-long insurgency.
The operation was intensified after the Taliban killed more than 150 people, the majority of them children, at Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014.
