At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured Friday as an explosion ripped through a busy market in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North Western Frontier Province, officials said.
The blast occurred as the people were shopping for Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha in a narrow and congested lane, called as Koocha Risaldar, leading to city's historic Qissa Khwani Bazar, reported dpa.
"According to the initial reports we have received, the bomb was planted in a car but it is not clear whether there was a suicide bomber in it or not," said NWFP's Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti.
Twenty people have died in the attacks and more than 70 are injured, he added.
According to provincial police chief Malik Naveed 20 to 25 kilograms of explosives were used in the explosion that left five feet deep crater and damaged several houses, shops, power transmission lines, and set fire to vehicles.
"It is a highly populated area and since there were so many people and buildings around the site of the explosion, the casualties are so high," Naveed added.
TV footage showed the ambulances moving injured to the hospitals and people trying to help the victims of the bombing which took place near a Shiite mosque.
The area has been a scene of sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims but it was not immediately clear whether the mosque was the actual target of the perpetrators.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the carnage but NWFP police chief suspected Taliban militants who have carried out dozens of suicide attacks in Peshawar as well as other parts of the province.
"These are the same people who are trying to destabilize our country," he said.
