Pakistani police say a bomb blast inside a shopping mall in the country's northwest has killed at least one person and wounded 12 people.

Senior police officer Gohar Khan says Thursday's bombing targeted shops selling mobile phones in the Hashat Nagri neighborhood in the city of Peshawar. He says the dead and the wounded were taken to hospital. Some of the victims are in critical condition.

No one claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on pro-Taliban militants who often target shops selling CDs, mobile phones and Internet cafes, accusing them of spreading obscenity.

Peshawar is the provincial capital of troubled Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province, and Pakistani security forces have carried out several offensives against insurgents there.