Blast kills at least 21 in Pakistan vegetable market, says official

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 21 (Reuters) - An explosion in a busy vegetable market killed at least 21 people on Saturday in Pakistan's remote northwestern tribal region, an official said.

About 40 others were wounded in the blast in Kurram region, near the border with Afghanistan, said Sajid Hussain Turi, member of the National Assembly from the region.

"We received 21 bodies of the local tribal people killed in the blast," Turi said, adding that there would be a mass funeral and then a demonstration over the attack.

Reports differed on the cause of the explosion.

Turi said a homemade bomb had been planted in a pile of tomatoes and exploded as people gathered in the market in Parachinar, Kurram's main town, early on Saturday morning.

Taliban militants have been active around Parachinar in the past, ad the town has also suffered sectarian tension between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

Another Kurram official, Sabzali Khan, said early reports had suggested that a suicide bomber was responsible for the blast.

An eyewitness, Ashiq Hussain, said he saw bodies strewn around the market and wounded people crying out for help.

"There was no ambulance, and people had to carry the injured in cars and private pickup trucks to the hospital," Hussain told Reuters.

A statement from Pakistan's military said army helicopters had been dispatched to evacuate the wounded. </s> Peshawar: A powerful explosion ripped through a crowded vegetable market in minority Shias dominated Parachinar in northwest Pakistan's restive Kurram tribal agency, killing at least 25 people and injuring 50 others.

The blast - claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban - occurred at the market inside Eidgah Bazaar in Parachinar, the administrative headquarters of the agency near the Afghan border.

Citing the political administration in Kurram agency, Geo TV said that at least 25 people were killed in the blast.

However, in a brief statement the military said that 20 people have been killed in the attack.

Initial report suggests that explosives kept in a vegetable crate exploded during auction of the vegetables, officials said.

The injured were shifted to Parachinar headquarters hospital where there is a shortage of doctors and medical facilities. At least 10 patients were said to be in critical condition.

A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the improvised explosive device (IED) blast took place at 08:50 AM in the vegetable market.

"Army and FC Quick Response officials have reached the blast site and cordoned off the area. Army helicopters have been flown in for medical evacuation of the injured," it said.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the attack and ordered a detailed report regarding the incident.

Muttahida Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, a Shia political organisation, announced three days of mourning over the blast.

According to officials, the death toll is expected to rise as the market was crowded due to early morning rush.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Umer Khurasani has claimed responsibility for the blast. He said the blast was to avenge the killing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi chief Asif Chotu.

Asif, who was on Pakistan's most wanted terrorist list and carried a bounty of Rs 3,000,000 on his head, was killed along with three aides in an encounter near Lahore on Tuesday.

He was directly involved in killing over 100 citizens of Pakistan in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Indirectly, he was involved in killing of over 200 people.

LeJ was founded in 1996 as a militant offshoot of Sipah-i-Sahaba, a Sunni sectarian group that emerged in the mid-1980s. LeJ has claimed responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, mostly minority Shia Muslims.

Opposition Pakistan People's Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the blast and said that "in order to defeat terrorism people will have to support the PPP."

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan said that attack on unarmed civilians is not acceptable. "The terrorists should be tried and the victims be given justice," he said.

Parachinar has a sizeable Shia population and in the past the minority community was targeted through bombings.

In December 2015, a similar blast at the Eidgah Market killed 25 people and injured 70 others.

Kurram is one of the most sensitive tribal areas as it borders three Afghan provinces and at one point was one of the key routes for militant movement across the border. It has witnessed scores of attacks. </s> The death toll from a bomb attack on a market on Saturday in a mainly Shiite area of Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt rose to 20, a military official said. Pakistani security officials and local residents gather at the site of a bomb explosion at a vegetable market in Parachinar city, the capital of Kurram tribal district on the Afghan border on Jan 21, 2017.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Channelnewsasia.com. </s> Dera Ismial Khan, Pakistan (Reuters) - A blast at a crowded market in a town in Pakistan’s northwest killed at least 8 people on Friday and wounded 20 others, a local government official said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast in the northwestern Orakzai district.

“Eight people have been killed and over 20 are injured. We are checking on further details,” local government official Mutahir Zeb told Reuters.

The blast occurred around the same time as three attackers attempted to storm the Chinese Consulate in the southern port city of Karachi in an unrelated incident in which two police officials were killed. The Karachi attack was claimed by the ethnic insurgent Baloch Liberation Army. </s> Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistan's three major cities today, killing 62 people and wounding nearly 100.

The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob's office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Thirteen people, including seven policemen, died in the suicide car bombing, officials said.

Hours later, two back-to-back blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia- dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 others.

The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion.

At least 45 people have been killed and 75 others injured in Parachinar, an official from the Parachinar administration told </s> : At least six people were killed and 30 others injured when a bomb went off inside a vegetable market in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Kurram Agency on Saturday morning, China's Xinhua news agency reported, citing local Urdu media.Dunya News reported that the blast happened at the time when dozens of people were busy shopping in the vegetable market located in Parachinar area of Kurram Agency, a semi-autonomous tribal region along Pakistan-Afghanistan border.Nature of the blast has not been officially confirmed yet, but some media reports said that the explosion was carried out by a remote controlled device.The injured people were shifted to a nearby hospital where several of them are said to be in critical condition.Security forces cordoned off the area for investigations. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. -- Bernama </s> PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted shoppers in a remote part of northwest Pakistan, killing at least 25 people and injuring 20 others.

The attacker detonated his explosives in the town of Kalaya, senior local government official Abbas Khan told NBC News.

“People from nearby villages come to this this market town every Friday morning for shopping and to sell their products,” he said. “There was a huge gathering of local people when the suicide bomber riding a motorcycle entered and blew himself up.”

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast occurred at around the same time that armed separatists stormed the Chinese Consulate in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.

Kalaya has a large population of Shiite Muslims, a minority in Pakistan that has been increasingly targeted by Sunni extremist groups such as the Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban. Sunnis and non-Muslim Sikhs were also among the victims, according to Khan.

Government officials said that death toll could rise as some of the injured were listed in critical condition.

The district of Orakzai, where Kalaya is located, was for decades a refuge for Islamist militants fighting across the border in Afghanistan. More recently it has been a home for many who are battling against Pakistan's government.

Pakistani security forces increased operations along the border in 2009 and have cleared some areas of fighters. </s> PESHAWAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - An explosion in a busy vegetable market killed at least 21 people on Saturday in Pakistan’s remote northwestern tribal region, an official said, in an attack jointly claimed by the Pakistani Taliban and a branch of the sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

About 40 others were wounded in the blast in Kurram region, near the border with Afghanistan, said Sajid Hussain Turi, member of the National Assembly from the region.

“We received 21 bodies of the local tribal people killed in the blast,” Turi said, adding that there would be a mass funeral followed by a demonstration over the attack.

Spokesmen for the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami said the two groups coordinated the attack together.

Mohammad Khurassani, a spokesman for the Mehsud faction of the Pakistani Taliban, said the attack was to avenge Tuesday’s killing of the leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Asif Chotoo, by police in the eastern province of Punjab.

Ali bin Sufyan, spokesman for LeJ’s Al Alami faction, told Reuters his group had coordinated the attack with the Pakistani Taliban. The Al Alami militants in the past have claimed to have coordinated attacks with Middle East-based Islamic State’s branch in Pakistan, including the November bombing of a Muslim shrine that killed 52 people, but the group also allies with the Taliban.

Reports differed on the cause of the explosion.

Turi said a homemade bomb had been planted in a pile of tomatoes and exploded as people gathered in the market in Parachinar, Kurram’s main town, early on Saturday morning.

Taliban militants have been active around Parachinar in the past, ad the town has also suffered sectarian tension between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

Another Kurram official, Sabzali Khan, said early reports had suggested that a suicide bomber was responsible for the blast.

An eyewitness, Ashiq Hussain, said he saw bodies strewn around the market and wounded people crying out for help.

“There was no ambulance, and people had to carry the injured in cars and private pickup trucks to the hospital,” Hussain told Reuters.

A statement from Pakistan’s military said army helicopters had been dispatched to evacuate the wounded. </s> At least 20 people lost their lives in Pakistan after a blast hit a vegetable market in Kurram Agency's area of Parachinar city on Saturday morning (21 January). According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the explosion took place at 8.50am local time (3.50am GMT) during rush hour when the retailers were busy buying fruits and vegetables.

Ikramullah Khan, a senior government official in Parachinar, said that the source of the blast was an improvised explosive device (IED) hidden in a vegetable box.

"At least 20 people have been killed and 49 wounded," assistant political agent Shahid Ali told Dawn News. Meanwhile, a bomb disposal squad official confirmed that the explosion was remote-controlled.

AFP news agency cited Noorullah Khan, an official in Parachinar hospital, as saying over 40 injured have been shifted to the hospital.

Dr Sabir Hussain at the Parachinar main hospital said that 11 of those injured died while being treated. Several people who have been critically injured have been shifted to other hospitals for better care, he added.

Ashiq Hussain, an eyewitness, said he saw bodies strewn around the market following the blast.

"There was no ambulance, and people had to carry the injured in cars and private pickup trucks to the hospital," Hussain said.

No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the blast yet.

The Kurram agency is one of the most sensitive tribal areas of Pakistan as it borders Afghanistan and is adjacent to North Waziristan where Operation Zarb-i-Azb is in progress against the Tehreek-i-Taliban and other insurgent groups.
An explosion kills at least 35 people and wounds at least 55 at a market in Kalaya, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Pakistan.