[Dawn] Two young girls were killed on Wednesday when a hand grenade exploded while they were playing on the outskirts of Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.
The incident took place in the Khazana area where small children were playing on a building site.
"An unknown person threw a hand grenade at a house under construction in Khazana, killing two girls aged four and six," senior police official Mohammad Karim Khan told AFP.
A three-year-old boy and six-year-old girl sustained injuries and were taken to hospital in Peshawar, he added.
Police said there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Sher Khan, father of the six-year-old girl who died, blamed the attack on local criminals who allegedly threatened to kill his children unless he handed over thousands of dollars.
"I was receiving threats from a local criminal group to pay 500,000 rupees (nearly 6,000 dollars)," Khan told AFP.
"I don't know who these people are as there are several criminal groups operating in the area," he said. "These people killed my daughter and niece."
Peshawar lies on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, which Washington has branded a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda, and has been hard hit by bomb attacks and shootings blamed on Taliban militants.
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