A powerful suicide car bomb ripped through a busy Peshawar market on Friday, killing 49 people and injuring more than 100.

The device was planted in the door panels of the vehicle and included machine-gun ammunition, designed to cause maximum casualties.

Shafqat Malik, chief of the bomb disposal squad, said. “The suicide attacker was sitting in the vehicle.” Officials said the blast could have been in retaliation for the recent successes of the security forces against militants in the Swat Valley and adjoining areas.

It was the sixth attack in the city in the past four months and followed the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone attack in August, whose death the militants have repeatedly vowed to avenge.