At least 24 people have died and more than 70 others were injured after a suicide car bomb attack near a Shia Muslim place of worship in the north-west Pakistani city of Parachinar.
At least 24 people have died and more than 70 others were injured after a suicide car bomb attack near a Shia Muslim place of worship in the north-west Pakistani city of Parachinar.
The attack took place near Parachinar’s Shia mosque, which is located near the Noor Market.
TV footage showed people transporting the victims in ambulances and private vehicles.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of Pakistani Taliban militants, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Spokesman Asad Mansoor said the attack was carried out by one of the group’s members, Abul Durda, using a car bomb to target Shias, whom the militants consider to be heretics.
The blast was so powerful it also damaged vehicles and nearby shops, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain.
He said authorities have declared an emergency and rescuers are transporting the wounded to nearby hospitals.
Parachinar is a key city in the Kurram tribal region bordering Afghanistan and has been wracked by sectarian violence in the past.
The region was once a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban and Sunni militant groups. Although the army said it has cleared the Kurram region of militants, violence has continued.
Mansoor and Lashker-e-Jhangvi, another banned Sunni sectarian militant group, have claimed responsibility for previous attacks in the region, where Shia Muslims are in the majority.
Sabir Hussain, a hospital official, said the Pakistan army used helicopters to transport 40 wounded to hospitals in the north-western city of Peshawar.
Angered over the attack, some residents were seen chanting slogans against the government. Security forces subsequently fired shots in the air and dispersed the crowd.
Earlier, the Pakistan army said it had dispatched a helicopter along with a team of doctors to help the victims and evacuate the wounded to hospitals in other cities.
Prime minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the bombing and vowed to eliminate terrorism.
“The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil,” he said.
The blast came hours after state-run media said Pakistani president Mamnoon Hussain had signed a bill removing the last hurdle for the revival of military courts to try terrorism suspects.
The development came days after Pakistan’s Senate and National Assembly separately passed a constitutional amendment to extend the practice, which has been in place for two years.
A previous 2015 amendment established the military courts for a two-year mandate which expired in January.
The move to send terror suspects to military courts followed the December 2014 Taliban attack on an army-run school in the north-western city of Peshawar which killed 154 people – mostly schoolchildren.
Pakistan has also lifted its moratorium on the death penalty and has executed more than 400 people, but most of those cases were linked to murders unconnected to terrorism.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s army said it has killed a “high-value” Pakistani Taliban leader, Mehmood-ul-Hassan, along with an associate in a raid in the South Waziristan tribal region.
Troops also seized a cache of weapons from the hideouts of slain militants, who for years operated from the region to orchestrate attacks in the country.
AP
