At least 22 people were killed and another 40 wounded on Saturday when a bomb blast tore through a crowded market in a mainly Shiite area of Pakistan. Pakistan’s military said in a statement that the victims had been “martyred,” adding that the army was taking part in rescue operations. The attack, at a vegetable market in Parachinar on the border with Afghanistan, was claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned sectarian militant group. The group said it had worked with the Taliban to carry out the attack. Earlier, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban had claimed responsibility in a telephone call to AFP. A spokesman for the group, known as the Hakimullah Mehsud faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said the attack was meant as revenge. “It was to avenge the killing of our associates by security forces and to teach a lesson to Shiites for their support for Bashar al-Assad,” a spokesman for the group was cited as saying. The city of Parachinar has frequently been the scene of similar attacks since Pakistan began fighting against Islamic insurgents in 2004.
CHEAT SHEET
TOP 10 RIGHT NOW
- 1
- 2
- 4
- 5
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10