Over 30 killed in Pakistan bombing

Over 30 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a powerful bomb explosion in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar.

Pakistani officials said on Sunday that a car bomb went off outside Peshawar’s Kissa Khwani market.

“The blast killed at least 33 people and wounded more than 80 others,” said Sahebzada Muhammad Anis, local official in Peshawar.

The location of the blast was also near a police station. Officials say it does not appear that the police station was the initial target of the attack.

“It looks like the market was the target,” said bomb disposal chief Shafqat Malik.

Peshawar, the main city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, is a gateway to the troubled tribal regions that are replete with pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.

On September 27, a bomb explosion went off on a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, leaving nearly 20 people dead and over 40 others injured.

On September 22, more than 80 people were killed in a twin bombing outside a church in Peshawar. Officials said that as many as 100 women and children were also injured in the attack.

Thousands of people have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks in Pakistan since 2001, when Islamabad entered an alliance with Washington on the so-called war on terror.

Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence and militancy sweeping across the country.