ISLAMABAD: The toll from twin explosions in Pakistan border has increased to 57 dead and nearly 170 others injured, local officials said on Saturday.
The first bomb attached to a motorbike went off in the Main Parachinar Bazaar, with a second device exploding on the main road in the area, a hospital official said. The bombs went off when people were buying Iftar items.
A dozen of the people wounded in Friday’s blasts that jolted a congested market and a taxi stand succumbed to their injuries on Saturday, raising the death toll to 57.
Hospital official Shabir Hussain and Shia leader Hamid Ali said another 167 were wounded in the bombings in Parachinar, a sectarian flashpoint. Almost all the victims were from the Shiite sect.
Political Agent Riaz Mehsud told reporters one of the blasts was carried out by a suicide bomber while the other might have resulted from a planted device. The blasts occurred seconds apart just two hours before Iftar.
A doctor at the Agency Headquarters Hospital, Zahid Hussain, confirmed the casualties. He said three of the injured were in critical condition. One bomb exploded in the Shingak Bazaar and another in the Zeran area.
Earlier in the day, two people were killed when a roadside hit a passenger vehicle on the Sherkot road in the Shiite-dominated semi-autonomous region. At least six passengers were injured.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings in the insurgency-hit area, where a massive operation against the Pakistani Taliban was conducted two years ago.
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