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Suicide car bomb kills 32 in Charsadda

* Dead include women, children, more than 100 injured
* Police say 60 kilogrammes of explosives used in attack

CHARSADDA: A suicide car bomb tore through a crowded shopping street, killing 32 people in the third attack to hit the NWFP in as many days.

The bomber blew up his vehicle in the heart of Charsadda on a road – called Farooq-e-Azam Chowk – lined with fruit and juice shops, ripping off shop roofs and littering the ground with slippers, human flesh and broken push carts.

“I was buying something before closing my shop. A car was parked on the other side of the road and all of a sudden there was a huge blast,” said Hazrat Ali, a shopkeeper with shrapnel wounds to his chest and forehead. “There was smoke and darkness everywhere. I passed out,” he told AFP. Witnesses said the apparent target of the attack was the Charsadda DPO, who narrowly escaped.

The blast damaged signboards and at least six vehicles, including two buses, during the afternoon shopping rush in the town’s most popular market.

“The death toll has gone up to 32, and more than 100 people have been wounded in this suicide attack,” NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Bilour told reporters.

Police said all the victims were civilians, and the dead included seven children and three women. The wounded are being treated in Charsadda and Peshawar.

60 kilogrammes: According to the bomb disposal squad, 60 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the attack. Police have cordoned off the area, and launched a search operation.

The prime minister, the president and the NWP governor and chief minister have strongly condemned the attack.

NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said the government’s operation would continue until the elimination of the Taliban from the country. Charsadda is the ideological centre of the secular ANP, which is currently governing NWFP, and the town has been struck by a series of deadly bomb and suicide attacks targeting ANP leaders. agencies

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