Rawalpindi: one killed in suicide attack on government bus

RPO Rawalpindi Nasir Khan Durrani retracted his earlier claim of deaths in the Choor Chowk suicide attack, saying only one person was killed. The RPO, who soon after the attack told media at the blast site that five to six persons have embraced shahadat, while 15 have been injured, later said only one person has been killed and 30 injured. Speaking to media persons at district headquarters hospital, Durrani said, the hospital authorities have confirmed the death of one person out of 30 injured who were shifted to the hospital. The bus carrying around 30 staffers was heading towards Rawalpindi from Islamabad, when it was hit by a motorbike rider, the city police officer said. We have found body parts and pieces of the motorbike that suggest that it might be a suicide attack, he said. Without identifying the government department, Durrani earlier had said around five to six people have been martyred. He said the blast damaged several private vehicles that were passing through the road at that time. The blast also ripped down electricity and telephone cables and shattered windows of homes and offices in the vicinity, witnesses said. Rescue services that rushed to the scene evacuated the injured to the nearby hospitals.