PESHAWAR: A suicide car bomb tore through a Pakistani market, killing 33 people and trapping victims under smashed shops on Friday, police said.
The explosion flung body parts across the bazaar and gutted shops in Ustarzai, a small town that lies between the garrison city of Kohat and Hangu, and has a history of sectarian unrest.
A spokesman for the little known Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi militant group claimed the attack.
The area was packed with shoppers buying food and delicacies for the weekend and Eid Al-Fitr holidays, which Pakistanis expect to start on Monday with the sighting of the new moon.
Bodies lay on the road and casualties were trapped under the debris from shops that caved in after the blast when the bomber rammed a jeep packed with 150 kilograms of explosives into another vehicle, police said.
Sohail Ahmad, a shopkeeper in the market whose left leg was broken in the attack, told AFP that he blacked out.
“I was standing in front of my shop when all of a sudden, a car blew up outside a restaurant. I went unconscious. I don’t remember anything else. When I came round, I was in hospital,” Ahmad said from his hospital bed.
Police spokesman Fazal Naeem in nearby Kohat said 33 people were killed and 56 others were wounded.
“There are 33 dead and more than 50 injured. Twenty-five have been identified while the rest are in a very bad condition. The bodies have been completely damaged,” said a North West Frontier Province police spokesman.
Police said the bomber came from the nearby Orakzai, the tribal district home of Pakistan’s new Taleban chief Hakimullah Mehsud who has vowed to avenge the death of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike.
“We cannot rule out the possibility that this was a sectarian-motivated attack,” said police officer Ali Hasan.
Source: Arab News
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