PESHAWAR: At least three people were killed and 43 others injured when a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden vehicle at a checkpoint outside the Badbher police station on Monday.

The blast destroyed a mosque, four houses, several shops and parts of the police station and the nearby degree college and disrupted power supply to some areas.

Officials said personnel of the police station had been receiving threats from militants for some time.

NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) that the attack was in retaliation for the military operation in tribal areas.

He reiterated the government’s resolve never to bow to terrorists. He said the attackers’ attempt to take the vehicle into the city had been foiled.

Peshawar SSP (Operations) Mohammad Karim Khan said the police station was the likely target of the bomber, but FC personnel had foiled his attempt by firing at the vehicle.

DSP Khurshid Khan told Dawn that all the deceased were civilians. Two policemen and two Frontier Constabulary personnel suffered minor injuries.

Among the injured were eight schoolchildren, two of them girls. A bomb disposal official said that about 250kgs of explosives mixed with artillery shells had been used in the blast which left a five-foot deep and 10-foot wide crater.

An FC man said the driver of the double-cabin van ignored the signal to stop. ‘When he tried to cross the barrier, FC man Umer Rehman opened fire at the vehicle and the bomber blew himself up,’ he said.

There was a deafening blast and thick smoke engulfed the area. Fruit vendor Sher Nawaz said he was near the police station when FC men warned the van’s driver and a huge blast took place.