PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD, 16 January 2007 — A bomb exploded at an Afghan refugee camp in northwestern Pakistan killing four people and wounding five more yesterday, police said. The motive for the attack at the Jalozai Afghan Refugee Camp in Nowshera was not immediately clear. The camp lies about 50 kilometers east of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province. Mohammed Tahir, an area police chief, said two Afghan refugees died on the spot and two more died at a hospital. Five others injured in the blast were in stable condition, he said.
“We have no idea what exactly caused this explosion, but apparently it was some explosive device,” he said, adding that officers had arrived at the scene and bomb disposal experts were investigating. The dead and injured were Afghan refugees, he said. Police said a few residents of the camp went missing after the blast.
According to Geo Television channel the blast occurred in the home of a local prayer leader and killed his brother and three visitors. The prayer leader, who was also injured when the house collapsed, was detained by police for questioning.
Meanwhile, security agencies defused a time bomb near the Parliament of North West Frontier Province in Peshawar, news reports said yesterday.
The 1.5-kilogram improvised explosive device wrapped in a grocery bag was found on Sunday outside the meteorological office near the Parliament building, local police chief Saad Khan told the Dawn newspaper. The bomb was removed by disposal experts, preventing an act of sabotage by “terrorists” to disturb peace in the provincial capital, Khan said. Nine explosions hit Peshawar in recent months, including a suicide attack. The NWFP government led by opposition parties has accused the country’s intelligence agencies of trying to destabilize the province.
