Ten people were killed and more than 20 injured on Monday when a suicide bomber rammed his motorbike into a Pakistan Army bus taking paramedic staff to work in this garrison town close to the capital Islamabad.
Police sources said the terror attack took place in the crowded RA Bazaar. Five people were killed instantly and five died in the nearby military hospital.
The bus was a wreck after the blast, and some cars nearby were damaged with the impact of the explosion.
Officials said they had found evidence that it was a suicide attack and were trying to identify the bomber
"It was a suicide attack. I believe that a man on a motorcycle had explosives," city police officer Basharat Abbasi told reporters.
"Twenty people are injured, some of them critically. We have launched an investigation," he said.
Confirming that 10 people, including the suicide bomber, had died, hospital sources said four of them were army personnel while five may be passers-by.
With elections only two weeks away on February 18, Pakistan has been hit by a continuous wave of terror, being seen as an effort to mar the polls that were rescheduled after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27.
{{/usCountry}}With elections only two weeks away on February 18, Pakistan has been hit by a continuous wave of terror, being seen as an effort to mar the polls that were rescheduled after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27.
{{/usCountry}}Bhutto was also killed in Rawalpindi. This latest incident is the fourth attack on an army bus in less than six months.
Earlier, eight people were killed in the same place when a car rammed into a bus carrying army recruits. Another 10 were killed about two kilometres away in a similar attack in September last year.
In the third similar terror strike, five people were killed in Faizabad when an army bus carrying civilian employees was hit by a car.