"When the passengers were coming, they detonated the remote-controlled bomb," Khan, who is the assistant political agent for Kurram Agency, told Reuters. Many of the 13 wounded were taken to hospital in the nearby town of Parachinar, Khan said. The military also sent a helicopter to evacuate the wounded to the key city of Peshawar. A spokesman for the Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban group, said the explosive device had been intended to target the country's Shia community and workers in the area carrying out a census.
"Our target was the Shia community and census team in the area," said Asad Mansur, the spokesman. Four census officials were wounded in the blast, Khan added. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered officials to "extend maximum support" for the treatment of the injured, his office said.
AP ADDS: A roadside bomb targeting a minivan in north-western tribal region on Tuesday killed 14 people, a local official said, raising an earlier reported death toll of nine killed. The attack was claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction. The blast ripped through the van travelling through a Shia area of the Kurram tribal area, which borders Afghanistan, said Arif Khan, a tribal administration official in the town of Parachinar. The area has long been the scene of sectarian violence.
Five women and four children were among the 14 killed, while 10 people were wounded in the explosion. With few adequate medical facilities in the area, a Pakistani army helicopter evacuated the wounded to a nearby military hospital. Jamat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway Taliban faction, said it was behind the attack on the Shias.
Copyright Reuters, 2017
Copyright Associated Press, 2017