The attacks came after reported death of al Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri in a US drone missile strike in the ethnic Pashtun tribal region of South Waziristan on the Afghan border.

Militants vowed to take revenge of the killing.

A bomb exploded at a bakery in the cantonment area of Nowshera city, killing 18 people, police said.

"We have confirmed 18 dead," Turk Ali Shah, a police spokesman in Nowshera, said. He said 35 people were also wounded in the blast.

Zakaullah Khan, the city's top government official, said the death toll could rise as many wounded were in critical condition.

Hours earlier, another bomb blast at a bus stop on the outskirts of Peshawar, capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killed six people and wounded, police said.

Pakistan's Taliban militants, who have close ties to al Qaeda, have carried out a series of attacks to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden by US special forces in a Pakistani town on May 2.