Death toll spikes in Eid attacks

ISLAMABAD: The death toll from bomb blasts that hit two different cities in Pakistan on Friday has risen to 59, officials said yesterday.

Local administrator Shoukat Yousafzai said the death toll from twin blasts that ripped through a market in Parachinar in the Kurrum region had risen to 45, after 27 people died of their injuries overnight.

The worst incident of the day took place in the afternoon when terrorists triggered a low intensity blast among people who were shopping at the Turi market for Eid.

The first blast was used to lure onlookers to the site before the second attack. A few minutes after the first explosion, a bigger blast occurred just metres away from the site of the first one, killing 18 and injuring more than 100 others.

Local media reported that the twin explosions were triggered remotely. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In another incident on Friday morning, a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a checkpoint outside a senior policeman’s office in the southwest city of Quetta, killing 14 people and injuring more than dozen.

Hospital sources in Quetta said the death toll had risen to 14 after one of the injured died in hospital yesterday. At least seven policemen were among the dead.

The terror group Jamaatul-ahrar, a splinter group of Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsiblity for the Quetta blast.

The police’s bomb disposal squad said that about 75kg of explosives, ball bearings and bolts were used in the attack.

The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), a mouthpiece of Pakistan army, said security had been tightened across the country.

Linking the recent incidents in Pakistan to the sanctuaries across the border in Afghanistan, the ISPR said security and surveillance of the border has been enhanced and stringent actions would be taken against illegal border crossings.

At least six terrorists have been killed and three others arrested in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the attacks.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks saying “the cowardly attacks were a sign of the growing frustration of terrorists and extremists”. – Xinhua