At least 44 die in two terrorist attacks in Pakistan

PESHAWAR: A series of powerful explosions and gunfire rocked Peshawar area of Saddar on Monday as heavy grey smoke spewed into the sky, witnesses and a security official said.
The causes of the blasts were not immediately clear, said the security official and local residents.
At least two people were killed and two others injured in the blast; the bodies and the injured have been shifted to Lady Reading Hospital. Some other injured have been moved to the CMH as well.
Khyber Road where the US Consulate building is situated, is being air-monitored by the helicopters.

Television footage showed a heavy mushroom cloud and smoke rising into the air over the garrison part of the city, close to the US consulate and the Peshawar headquarters of Pakistan's top spy agency, bombed last November.
Bursts of heavy gunfire could also be heard in the wake of blasts which a foreign news agency puts at five in number.
The Khyber Road, where the US Consulate is situated, has been closed.
The cameras of news channels were live covering the incident with security personnel on their positions, when two consecutive blasts occurred.
The series of these three blasts occurred within 20 minutes and shook the city followed by extreme firing. The second and third blasts occurred in vehicles.
The blasts were so intense that the mobile phones services were closed for some time.
Emergency has been declared in Peshawar Hospital.
The US Consulate official said the Consulate is garnering information about the blasts.

TIMERGARAH: The death toll in a blast that ripped through the rally of Awami National Party (ANP) in Timergarah rose to 25, Geo News quoted a doctor saying Monday.
The blast occurred at ANP’S public rally in Timergarah Tehsil of Lower Dir; the rally was being taken out as thanksgiving, as the name of the province was changed to Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw.
The Party kept secret its program to celebrate over the new name of the province.
The MS of District Hospital Timergarah Doctor Wakil said at least 25 bodies and over 100 injured were brought to the hospital.
The blast was so powerful that the nearby buildings shook and their windowpanes broke down.
The injured were shifted to the nearby hospitals. The local people initially started relief work on self-help basis.
The security personnel soon arrived on the spot and cordoned off the affected area.
The rally was passing near a police check post and a passport office in the main bazaar, when the blast occurred.
According to DIG Qazi Jameel, the blast occurred near a guesthouse.
Emergency has been declared in all hospitals in the area.
The injured include the borher of the ANP leader Haji Adeel.