A bomb exploded at a bus stand in northwest Pakistan early on Sunday, killing six people in the latest violence to hit the country since the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The attack also followed reports that another top al-Qaeda operative, Ilyas Kashmiri, had been killed in a recent American missile strike along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
The blast occurred at a bazaar in the Matani area, around 12 miles (20 kilometres) south of the main northwest city of Peshawar.
ADVERTISEMENT
At least 10 people were wounded. Many of the dead and injured were in a pickup truck near the bus stand, police official Abdul Ghaffar Khan said.
TV footage showed the twisted truck and other damaged vehicles scattered at the scene, while rescue workers rushed away the wounded. Officials weren’t immediately certain if the bomb was a planted device, or if a suicide attacker was involved.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault, but since the May 2 raid that killed bin Laden in a garrison town elsewhere in Pakistan’s northwest, the Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for several other attacks.
ADVERTISEMENT
The bloodshed has included a twin suicide bombing that killed 80 people at a paramilitary police training facility, and a 17-hour siege of a naval base.