Three persons, including two women, were killed and 19 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a residential area in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Sunday, police said.
Reports suggested the bomber was trying to target a gathering that was offering prayers for a militant leader who was killed in a car bomb attack on Saturday night. However, the bomber was spotted and exchanged fire with some men before taking shelter in a narrow lane in Momin Town area.
When he was cornered, the bomber detonated his explosives. Peshawar police chief Sifwat Ghayur told reporters at the site of the blast.
Four women and six children were among the injured and some of them were in a serious condition, other officials said.
TV news channels beamed footage of a house that bore the brunt of the explosion. The blast created a gaping hole and blackened the walls of the house. The walls were also pockmarked by pellets that were packed into the suicide jacket.
There were reports that the bomber intended to target a gathering that was offering 'fateha' or prayers for Mubin Afridi, the spokesman of the outlawed Ansar-ul-Islam group, who was killed in a car bomb attack in Peshawar late on Saturday night.
