'Bomber who targeted consulate in Peshawar was teenager'

The suicide bomber who attacked the Iranian Consulate in this northwestern Pakistani city and killed three security personnel is believed to have been a teenager, police said today.
According to a report prepared by police on yesterday's attack, body parts of the bomber found by law enforcement agencies suggest he was 15 to 17 years of age.
A grenade thrown by the bomber was found today near the consulate and defused by a bomb disposal squad.
The bomber also parked a white car rigged with 60 kg of explosives next to the wall of the Consulate in University Town area.

The car bomb was set to go off after five to 10 minutes but it failed to explode, the report said.
Three paramilitary personnel were killed and 10 others injured in the suicide attack which was claimed by a spokesman for militant commander Mast Gul, who was involved in the 1995 siege of Charar-e-Sharief shrine in Jammu and Kashmir.

Meanwhile, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police chief Nasir Khan Durrani said 144 terrorists were arrested by his force while 25 militants were killed in gun battles during the past four months.
The major groups involved in terrorist activities across the province are Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), TTP Tariq Geedar Group, TTP Faiq Group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Mohmand, TTP Qari Aqeel Group, Emarat-e-Islamia Group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Swat (TTS) and Lashkar-e-Islam.

Durrani said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the frontline province in the war on terror and has been the main target of terrorists on account of a number of factors and developments taking place in and around Pakistan.
Policemen remained the most vulnerable target as 79 personnel were killed in the past six months, he said.