PESHAWAR - At least 24 people were killed and dozens others injured in two bomb explosions in Peshawar and Nowshera on Sunday. Six persons were killed and 12 others injured when a bomb planted in a passenger van exploded in Matni area of Peshawar while 18 killed in a suicide blast at a Nowshera bakery. Police sources and eyewitnesses said a suspected passenger placed some plastic bag in the van and informed the passengers that he would come back soon. After he dislodged from the vehicle, the device exploded with a big bang, killing six persons including women and children and injuring several others. The blast also damaged five other vehicles parked at the bus terminal of Matni area. Heavy contingent of police rushed to the blast site and cordoned off the area, they also collected some evidence from there. It was a remote-controlled bomb blast targeting passenger vehicle, said senior police officer Ijaz Khan. Soon after the explosion, rescue teams and Edhi ambulances rushed towards the site and retrieved the dead and injured persons from the scrap of the damaged vehicle. The injured persons were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar where some of them were stated to be in critical condition. Those who were killed identified: Hamna w/o Ali Nawaz, Sedro w/o Azmat Khan, Riaz s/o Ayub, Haji Shahid s/o Haji Ashraf and an unidentified woman. The injured included: Yar Afzal, Ms Mazia, Haji Umer, Amir Nawaz, Israr Khail and Haroon. It bears mentioning here that it is the fourth terrorist attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the killing of Osama bin Laden. No militant organisation has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. Staff Reporter from Islamabad adds: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the bomb blast in Peshawar, resulting in the loss of precious lives and injuring many. Prime Minister reiterated governments resolve to root out the cancer of terrorism from every nook and corner of the country. Such cowardly attacks on peaceful citizens cannot demoralise the nation, he added. Commiserating with the bereaved families, Prime Minister prayed to Allah Almighty to rest the departed souls in peace. He directed the civil administration to provide best medical care to the injured. Agencies add: The dead included three women and one child, a police official said, adding that the wounded also included two women. The police arrested the driver of the blown-up vehicle and were interrogating him. Police officer Ijaz said five kilograms of explosives were used in Sundays bombing. Insurgents have in the past targeted members of anti-militant tribal militia known as lashkar. But Ijaz said no tribal elder was there at the time of blast and the identity of the target was not immediately known. Agencies add: A suicide blast killed at least 18 people and wounded 40 in Nowshera on Sunday, police said. The blast took place at a bakery shop and we have confirmed 18 dead, Turk Ali Shah, a police spokesman in Nowshera, told Reuters. He said 40 people were also wounded in the blast Taliban claimed the responsibility of the attack. According to the officials of bomb disposal squad the blast was a suicide attack. They said they had found mutilated body parts of the suicide bomber whose age was in between 17 to 20 years. More than 40 people were injured in the blast in the town of Nowshera, which is 50 kilometres away from Peshawar, the gateway to lawless tribal region on the border with Afghanistan. Earlier, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain while talking to AFP had claimed that a remote controlled bomb was planted in a dustbin at the entrance of the bakery on the main Mall Road in Nowshera. He had put the death toll at 14 with 21 injured. The explosion sparked a huge fire which has now been brought under control, he said. The attack came two days after a US drone strike which officials believe killed Al-Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri, one of the networks most feared operational leaders. The Pakistani Taliban claimed Sundays attack in Nowshera in a phone call to AFP. It was a remote-controlled bomb which was planted by our men, Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said from an undisclosed location. Nowshera police chief Abdullah Khan said the dead included three children and three of the injured were in a critical condition. Kashmiri had a US bounty of $5 million on his head and Pakistani officials said he was the target of Fridays drone strike in South Waziristan, in which nine members of his banned group died. The rugged tribal region is known as Pakistan's premier stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants. The United States has long put pressure on Pakistan to mount a major air and ground offensive in North Waziristan, from where Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents launch attacks across the border in Afghanistan. Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be of its own time and choosing, arguing that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are already too overstretched fighting militants posing a domestic threat. More than 4,400 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other Islamist extremist networks based in the tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.