Jan. 21 (UPI) — At least 20 people were killed and 50 others were injured after a bomb exploded at a busy vegetable market in Pakistan on Saturday.
Officials said the death toll was expected to rise after a homemade bomb was reportedly placed inside a pile of tomatoes before being detonated at the crowded vegetable market in the northwestern city of Parachinar on the border near Afghanistan , Pakistan Today reported .
« We received 21 bodies of the local tribal people killed in the blast, » member of the National Assembly Sajid Hussain Turi said.
Turi added that there would be a mass funeral and demonstration for those who died in the attack.
The injured were transferred to Agency Headquarters Hospital Parachinar where at least 10 patients are in critical condition.
A faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast stating they sought to « to avenge the killing of our associates, » according to the BBC .
A spokesman for the Sunni Muslim group said it would continue to attack Shiite areas like Parachinar in order to « teach a lesson to Shiites for their support » of the president of Syria Bashar al-Assad in the nation’s six-year civil war.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the blast and ordered an investigation.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued a statement grieving the loss of life.
Pakistan’s military cordoned off the area and helicopters were sent to survey the scene and evacuate the injured.
