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Two blasts kill 25, Injure 70 in NW Pakistan

26 July 2013 17:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least 25 people were killed and about 70 others injured when two blasts hit Parachinar, capital town of Kurram Agency in northwest Pakistan on Friday evening, reported local Urdu TV channel Samaa, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

There is no official confirmation about the casualties yet.

According to the local media reports, the first blast took place at about 5:00 p.m. local time when a bomb planted on a motorbike went off at a main bazaar in the town, which is less than 20 kilometers away from the Afghan border.

This was shortly followed by another blast at a Shia mosque on the School Road in the town.

The second blast is said to be of suicide nature.

Local police also confirmed that one of the blasts is a suicide blast.

Local media quoted eyewitnesses as saying that a suicide bomber rammed his motorbike into the main gate of the mosque, leaving many killed and injured as there were a lot of people praying inside the mosque when the blast occurred.

All the injured have been shifted to the district headquarters hospital in the town.

Hospital sources said that some of the injured were in critical condition.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the twin blasts and directed the concerned departments to give the best possible medical treatment to the injured people.

President Asif Ali Zardari, who himself is a Shia Muslim, later also condemned the blasts.

Earlier on Friday afternoon, a pickup hit a roadside-planted bomb, leaving two people killed and six others injured in the Kharpata area of Kurram Agency, a tribal area which is frequently hunted by militancy as it borders on Afghanistan.