Parachinar market bomb kills 25

At least 25 people, including two-minors were killed and 35 others injured when a bomb exploded in a vegetable market in semi-tribe area of Kurram Agency on Saturday morning. The blast took place at 8:50am 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. The injured people were shifted to a nearby hospital where several of them are said to be in critical condition.
"There was a loud bang and a thick layer of smoke engulfed the market," according to an eyewitness Shahid Hussain. "We had to carry most of the injured on our backs for shifting them to the hospital through private vehicles," he added.
Other eyewitnesses said they saw children soaked in blood after the bomb exploded. The official list of those killed and injured displayed outside the agency headquarter hospital in Parachinar included names of two minors, who were killed in the incident.
According to officials of the political administration, at least 25 people were killed and over 35 injured in the explosion. The political administration said that bomb was planted in fruit crate, which was exploded through remote control.
This was the fourth attack in recent years in Parachinar's Eidghah Market. According to a political administration official, 2016 was relatively peaceful in the area however this incident was going to cast a shadow of doubt regarding peace in the area.
Army personnel and Frontier Corps's Quick Reaction Force reached the blast site and cordoned off the area. Army helicopters were also flown to the site to evacuate the injured to hospitals, the ISPR said. Security forces cordoned off the area for investigations. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
The locals said that at least 12 dead bodies have been shifted to Imambargah while six dead bodies have been shifted to a nearby mosque. Dr Sabir Hussain said many of the wounded were in critical condition and death toll could dramatically jump up.
Government official Shahid Khan said the explosion took place when the market was crowded with retailers buying fruits and vegetables. He said the nature of the explosion is being investigated. The nature of the blast could not be immediately ascertained.
AFP adds: A bomb exploded at a market on Saturday in a mainly Shia area of Kurram tribal district, killing at least 20 people and wounding 40 others, officials said.
The bomb detonated in a crowded vegetable market in Parachinar city, the capital of Kurram tribal district on the Afghan border.
"20 people have been martyred [killed]," the Pakistan military said in a short statement, adding that the injured had been taken to military and civil hospitals in the region's main city of Peshawar.
"Troops from army and (paramilitary) Frontier Corps are under taking relief and rescue operations," it said. In a telephone call to AFP, the Hakimullah Mehsud faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack. "It was to avenge the killing of our associates by security forces and to teach a lesson to Shias for their support for Bashar al-Assad," said the group's spokesman, Qari Saifullah, referring to the Syrian president.
Saifullah warned that his Sunni Muslim group will continue attacking Shias if they back Assad, whose regime is entrenched in a civil war that began in 2011 and has claimed more than 310,000 lives. In December 2015 an IED blast at the same market killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 30.