Compensation for victims of Parachinar blast demanded

A Member of National Assembly from Kurram Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), on Tuesday demanded compensation for the victims of Parachinar blast, besides concrete measures to secure the bordering region.
Talking to a group of reporters, Sajid Hussain Turi, MNA from Kurram Agency, strongly condemned the last week bomb blast in a crowded fruit and vegetable market in Parachinar, which left 25 people dead and injured more than 70 others.
"All the victims were poor people and many of them were the lone bread-earners of their families and the government needs to announce a handsome compensation package and that should not be less than Rs1 million per victim," he added.
Strongly criticising the local administration, he demanded that the local administration should be replaced with new honest officers and a thorough investigation should be conducted in the negligence of the local administration.
The MNA further said that the inquiry should be conducted by officials from Islamabad with a view to make it transparent and independent.
"It is necessary that the incumbent officials from the local administration should not be given the task to probe the incident and independent and neutral officers from Islamabad should be given the task," he added.
He also rejected the claims by the local political administration to have arrested some suspects, adding that the administration arrested innocent people to avoid embarrassment.
To a question, the MNA said that it was the third blast in Kurram Agency after the month of Muharram and the authorities failed to avert such a huge devastation despite intelligence information.
A few weeks back, he said that a suicide bomber targeted security forces on Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Kharlachi crossing point and last month another attack was launched at the same point.
He said that strict security measures should be undertaken to secure the border with Afghanistan, as law and order situation across the border is worsening with increasing activities of Taliban and Daesh.
"The people of Parachinar are particularly worried about the terrorist activities across the border," he said, adding Kurram Agency borders with three Afghan provinces namely Paktika, Paktia and Nangarhar which are notorious for the militants' activities.