Pakistan market bomb toll rises to 20

PAKISTAN: The death toll from a bomb attack in a Pakistan cattle market rose to 20 on Friday, including 14 militants and six local tribesmen, intelligence and administrative officials said.

The bomb exploded on Thursday in a market controlled by Islamist militants in Khyber, which is part of a NATO supply route to troops in Afghanistan and has been branded an Al-Qaeda headquarters by Washington.

“The confirmed death toll we have is 20. About 24 people were also injured in the blast,” an intelligence official told AFP from Peshawar, Pakistan’s main northwestern city and close to Khyber.

Another intelligence official confirmed that four of the wounded succumbed to their injuries on their way to hospital.

“The area is far flung and remote. Four people died when relatives were taking them to hospitals,” he said.

Intelligence officials said 14 militants died, including a deputy of Mangal Bagh who heads extremist group Lashkar-e-Islam chief, and six local tribesmen.

“We are monitoring the injured in hospital. We have reports that some of the injured were attached with Mangal Bagh,” he said.

Security forces in Jamrud town in Khyber arrested 18 people on their way to a hospital in Peshawar.

“Six of those arrested were injured and we have shifted them to hospital in Peshawar while the other 12 were arrested and have been shifted to a lock up in Jamrud,” a local administrative official told AFP.

The nature of the blast, described by some as planted explosives and others as a suicide attack, was still unclear. ISLAMABAD, Friday, AFP