At least 21 killed in blast at Pakistan vegetable market

The attack was claimed to be a joint operation by the Pakistani Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi sectarian militant group.

The site of a bomb blast that killed at least 21 people at a vegetable market in Parachinar, the capital of Kurram tribal district in north-west Pakistan, on January 21, 2017. Ali Jan / AFP

PESHAWAR // An explosion in a busy vegetable market killed at least 21 people in Pakistan’s remote north-western tribal region on Saturday, in an attack claimed jointly 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, a member of parliament from the region.

“We received 21 bodies of the local tribal people killed in the blast,” Mr Turi said.

He said there would be a mass funeral for the victims 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.

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, said his group had carried out the attack with the Pakistani Taliban. The Al Alami militants in the past have claimed to have coordinated attacks with ISIL’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.

Mr 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, and the town has also suffered sectarian tension between Sunnis and Shiites.

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,” Mr Hussain said.

Pakistan’s military said it had sent helicopters to evacuate the wounded.

* Reuters