PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A roadside bomb targeting a police officer exploded in the main northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday, injuring three people in the latest of a wave of attacks to strike the area since the army launched a major anti-Taliban offensive last month.
The bomb was detonated by remote control as Riaz Ulislam, the head of a police station in Peshawar, was passing by in his vehicle in a residential area of Peshawar near a school, said Hakim Khan, a police officer at the scene of the attack.
The blast injured Ulislam, his driver and a child who was passing by, Khan said. The explosion badly damaged the vehicle and a nearby electrical tower, he added.
Suspected militants have carried out a wave of deadly attacks in and around Peshawar since the army launched a major offensive in mid-October in the South Waziristan tribal area, where al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding.
Last week, a suicide bomber killed 19 people outside a courthouse in Peshawar. In late October, a car bomb exploded in a crowded market in the city, killing at least 112 people, the deadliest attack in Pakistan for more than two years.
