PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Dilawar Khan’s son had stopped off at his tea shop on his way back from school when a powerful car bomb exploded outside it. The 12-year-old was among the dozen killed in Thursday’s blast at an outdoor minibus terminal for passengers wanting to travel to the lawless border regions with Afghanistan.
The explosion tore through a dozen vehicles waiting to transport passengers from the city of Peshawar to other areas of the country. Some of the minibuses were blackened and destroyed. There were 32 wounded, including children, officials said.
“God should destroy these terrorists,” Khan cried at a hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
In the chaos, the 45-year-old shopkeeper initially thought his other son had been killed, but he turned up at home later.
“What have my sons done wrong?” he said, beating his face with his hands.
Violence has dropped off in Peshawar and some other areas of Pakistan over the past year following offensives against the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest. But bombings and shootings still occur with regularity.
No group claimed responsibility for the blast.
It’s unclear why the bus terminal was targeted. Most militant attacks are aimed at security force or government targets, but markets and other public places have also been hit, presumably to create chaos and add to perceptions that the government is unable to provide basic security.
Also Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for the resumption of a full range of formal contacts with Pakistan after its parliament completes a review of strained ties between the two countries.
At a meeting on the sidelines of an international conference on Somalia in London, Clinton outlined to Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar a series of steps the U.S. would like to see once the review has been completed.
A senior U.S. official said those steps include visits by top American diplomats, along with a return to three-way talks between the U.S., Pakistan and Afghanistan.
U.S.-Pakistan ties have been troubled for some time, mainly over alleged Pakistani support for Islamist extremists, but deteriorated badly in November when U.S. airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two Afghan border posts.
