40 killed in four bomb and gun attacks

At least 40 people have been killed and nearly 100 wounded in four separate bomb and gun attacks in three major Pakistani cities, officials said.

A suicide bomber was involved in the first car bombing near the office of the provincial police chief in the south-western city of Quetta that killed at least 12 people and wounded 20.

There were conflicting claims of responsibility for this attack from different extremist groups.

Hours later twin bombings, minutes apart, hit a crowded market in a Shiite-dominated city in Parachinar, the main city in the Kurram tribal region, and killed 24 people, mostly minority Shiite Muslims, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain.

Yesterday evening, gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant and killed four of them before fleeing. The bomb and gun attacks come a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eidal-fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan.