PESHAWAR: At least 12 persons were killed and 24 others injured when three back-to-back blasts occurred inside Shama Cinema, owned by Bilour family, in Peshawar on Tuesday, rescue source said.
The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) denied its involvement in the Peshawar blasts.
It is pertinent to mention that the Taliban killed the Awami National Party (ANP) senior leader and the senior minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s then government Bashir Ahmed Bilour in a suicide attack in the city’s Qissa Khwani Bazaar on December 22 last year.
Following today’s blasts, which according to Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ejaz Ahmed took place after militants hurled three hand grenades inside the cinema, the injured were shifted to Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital, where an emergency was imposed and additional staff was urgently summoned.
Meanwhile, the security force arrived at the site of the blasts and cordoned the area.
The blasts occurred when up to 80 people were watching a show in the cinema near Bacha Khan chowk.