Twin bomb blasts kill 15 in northwest Pakistan: police

Jun 12, 2011 |

Peshawar

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Twin bomb blasts at a crowded supermarket killed at least 15 people and injured more than 60 in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar late on Saturday, police said.

The explosions took place in the Khyber Super Market, which is surrounded by residential flats for students, shops, a fruit juices kiosk and a hotel.

"At least 15 people were killed and more than 60 injured in the blasts," senior local police official Ijaz Khan told AFP, saying the blasts were just four minutes apart.

"The first blast was quite small but as people gathered close to the site of the explosion, the second one, which was real big one, went off," he said.

More than 4,400 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other Islamist extremist networks based in the nearby tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

The latest violence came hours after visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on Pakistan to eradicate militant sanctuaries at "detailed" talks about a peace process with the Taliban that inaugurated a joint peace commission.

Karzai and a raft of top aides held two days of meetings in Islamabad, just weeks after US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, heightening calls within the United States for a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan.

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