PESHAWAR: A man holds his injured children at a hospital following a bomb explosion at a shrine on Thursday. AFP

PESHAWAR - Four people, including two children, were killed when c ripped through congested area of Peshawar and Quetta on Thursday. A bomb planted in a donkey cart killed three people, including two children, outside a Sufi shrine in Peshawar, police said. The explosives were planted near the Panj Peer shrine on the outskirts of Peshawar. “Three people have died and 21 are wounded,” police official Asif Iqbal told AFP. The dead included a five-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl who had come with their parents, he added. “The bomb was planted in a donkey cart parked near the shrine,” he said. The donkey, whose front legs were tied with a rope, was blown to pieces, he said. The device was fitted with a timer and carried between eight and 10 kilogrammes of explosives, he said. Worshippers had gathered for a weekly event at the shrine, normally held on Thursday evenings, when the bomb exploded. “It appears that the target was the worshippers who were gathered here,” another police officer Tahir Ayub said. The shrine houses the graves of several Sufi saints. The tomb of popular Pashto poet Rahman Baba is also located near the Panj Peer shrine. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Meanwhile, a bomb blast took place near a mosque in Ghaus Abad area of Quetta’s Satellite Town, killing a person and injuring at least 15 others. Police and rescue teams arrived at the scene and moved the injured to nearby hospitals. No group claimed the responsibility of the attack so far.