Market blast kills 24, wounds dozens
LEJ CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR EXPLOSION AT THE EIDGAH USED-CLOTHES MARKET; TOLL EXPECTED TO RISE
Ablast killed 24 people and injured 70 in the northwestern Pakistani city of Parachinar yesterday, officials said, and a banned Sunni Islamist group claimed responsibility for the attack.
“This is revenge for the killing of Muslims by the Syrian president and Iran,” said Ali Bin Sufyan, spokesman for Lashkar-E-Jhangvi (LeJ), an Islamist group whose sectarian ideology is closely aligned with Daesh. He was speaking to Reuters by phone.
Last week Reuters reported that a Shiite unit of Pakistani fighters known as the Zeinabiyoun were joining the war against Daesh in Syria. Many come from Parachinar, which has a large Shiite population, unusual in Sunni-majority Pakistan.
Regional sources were hundreds of fighting in Syria.
Sufyan said Parachinar residents should not travel to Iran or Syria to fight in the war there on behalf of the Shiites.
The explicit linkage of the Pakistan bombing to the war in Syria will alarm Pakistani officials, who are keen to play down reports that Daesh is seeking to establish a foothold in their country.
A couple of small militant groups who splintered from the Pakistani Taliban pledged allegiance to Daesh, but they have not had much impact.
But across the border in Afghanistan, militants who split said there Pakistanis from the Taliban and pledged allegiance to Daesh have established training camps, taken over territory and clashed with the Taliban.
Going after LeJ
Like Daesh, which set up a cross-border caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, the LeJ wants to kill or expel Pakistan’s minority Shiites and Sunni theocracy.
The LeJ had once enjoyed the open support of Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, but the group suffered a series of setbacks this year.
The leader of LeJ, his two sons and several top officials were shot dead in police custody this
establish
a July; police say they were trying to escape. Last month another top LeJ commander was shot by police while in custody.
But yesterday’s bombing, if carried out by the LeJ, is proof that the group can still mount devastating attacks.
Parachinar local government official Riaz Hussain said the blast targeted crowds at a market. “The death toll has reached 24 and 70 are wounded,” said Amjad Ali Khan, the political head of Kurram Agency. Parachinar is the capital of Kurram.
“Some of the injured are in critical condition,” said Shafiq Hussain, a health worker at the Agency Headquarters Hospital Parachinar.