3rd LD writethru: 20 killed, 30 injured as blast hits market area in NW Pakistan

At least 20 people were killed and 30 others injured when a bomb went off in a vegetable and fruit market in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Kurram Agency on Saturday morning, officials said.

Major General Asif Ghafoor, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the mouthpiece of Pakistani army confirmed that the blast took place by the explosion of an improvised explosive device (IED) inside the market.

The ISPR earlier released a statement saying that said the explosion happened at 8:50 a.m. (local time) in Parachinar area, the administrative headquarters of Kurram Agency.

Sajid Turi, a lawmaker from the agency, said that the IED was hidden inside a carton carrying apples.

He said that a large number of people from Parachinar and adjoining villages were busy shopping in the market when the blast happened.

Outlawed organization Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took credit for the attack in an e-mail to media.

Contradicting the officials' statement, the TTP spokesman, Muhammad Khorasani claimed that their member Saifullah alias Bilal carried out the suicide bombing in the Parachinar's marketplace.

He added the attack was revenge of the killing of Asif Chuto, chief of the banned militant organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, who was killed along with three activists, in an encounter with police in the country's east Punjab province earlier this week.

All the injured people were initially shifted to Agency Headquarters Hospital Parachinar from where the seriously wounded victims were airlifted to hospitals in capital city Peshawar of neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, via army helicopters.

Noorullah Khan, a medical officials in the Parachinar hospital, said that the death toll is feared to rise and several among the injured people are in critical condition.

Two vehicles and several shops were also destroyed in the blast.

Commercial activities halted in the area following the explosion as local people closed all the markets in Parachinar.

Located along Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Kurram Agency is infested with sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims who attack each other time and again.

Local Urdu TV channel Geo reported that 12 of the killed were Shia Muslims whose bodies were shifted to a Shia mosque for final rituals.

The country's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the incident and directed hospital administration to provide best possible medical treatment to the injured people.

The quick reaction force from Pakistani army and paramilitary troops reached at the blast site and cordoned it off for investigations. Endit