PARACHINAR: At least 25 people were killed and scores of others injured in a bomb blast at a crowded used clothes market in Parachinar area of Kurram Agency on Sunday.
According to Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) a powerful time bomb weighing about 30 to 35 kilogram ripped through the used clothes market (Lunda Bazaar) when the people were busy in buying used clothes for the winter season.
As a result of explosion 22 people died while 55 others sustained wounds. Rescue and emergency teams rushed to the blast site and shifted the dead and wounded to District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) Parachinar where according to hospital sources condition of 15 injured people was serious. An emergency was declared at the hospital to deal with the situation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi said that the critically wounded people were shifted to Peshawar for better treatment. The Governor further said that he had also ordered for compensation to be paid to the victims within the next two days.
Security forces cordoned off the area after the explosion, gathered the evidences, launched search operation in the area while a probe into the blast was underway.
No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. Security sources said that two suspects have been taken into custody from the blast site.
President Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Speaker National Assembly (NA) Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif have condemned the terrorist attack and said that extremist can’t weaken government’s resolve to curb militancy through such tactics. They prayed for the departed souls to rest in eternal peace and earlier recovery of those wounded in the blast.
