Death toll from Pakistan tribal region rises to 25

A Pakistani government official says the death toll from a bomb blast in the Kurram tribal region has risen to 25 after three injured people died overnight. It was the first major militant attack in the country in 2017.
Shahid Khan, an assistant tribal administrator, said Sunday an investigation revealed that 12 kilograms (26.5 pounds) of explosives improvised with steal balls were used in the bombing. The attack took place in the crowded fruit and vegetable market in the Shiite dominated town of Parachinar near the Afghan border on Saturday.
Khan said more than 50 wounded were still being treated, some in critical condition.
Naseerullah Khan, an administration official in the region, told AFP, “Some 33 injured are being treated in the district hospital in Kurram while 25 have been shifted to a military hospital in Peshawar. Others with minor injuries have been discharged after first aid,” Khan said.
Video footage from Saturday showed chaotic scenes with people running and shouting in panic and victims strewn in front of vegetable stalls among smashed crates and pushcarts.
Ikramullah Khan, a senior government official in Parachinar, said that the blast was caused by an IED (improvised explosive device) hidden in a vegetable box.
In a telephone call to AFP, the Hakimullah Mehsud faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack.
“It was to avenge the killing of our associates by security forces and to teach a lesson to Shiites for their support for Bashar Assad,” said the group’s spokesman, Qari Saifullah, referring to the Syrian president.
Saifullah warned that his Sunni Muslim group will continue attacking Shiites if they back Assad, whose regime is entrenched in a civil war that began in 2011 and has claimed more than 310,000 lives.
In December 2015 an IED blast at the same market killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 30.
Kurram is one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts which are governed according to local laws and customs. The district is known for sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites, who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan’s population of 200 million.

Source: Arab News