At least 42 people have been killed and 72 injured after a powerful blast went off in Pakistan’s northwest tribal area of Bajaur Agency bordering Afghanistan.
The explosion took place about 8:40 a.m. when a bomber detonated explosives in a large crowd of people gathering at a checkpoint near the office of the World Food Program near Civil Colony in Khar, the main city in Bajaur Agency, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday.
According to the report, some 1,100 to 1,500 people were seen gathering at the checkpoint to receive food tokens to be distributed by the World Food Program office.
Hospital sources said the death toll is expected to further increase as many of the injured were in critical condition.
Security forces have cordoned off the blast scene and have begun rescue operations.
The identity of the bomber in Khar is still unknown, but some officials have said the attacker was a woman.
Local police official Fazal-e-Rabbi Khan said that the bomber, dressed in a traditional women’s burqa, hurled two hand grenades into the crowd before blowing her explosives-laden vest outside the distribution center.
No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Meanwhile, the local administration imposed an indefinite curfew in Khar and security reinforcements were deployed across streets to launch a search operation in the area.
Bajaur, widely seen by Pakistani authorities as a hotbed of Taliban forces, has been the scene of a military offensive since August.
Incessant US missile strikes from Afghan bases on other border areas combined with Pakistani military operations have soured relations between ‘war on terror’ allies and unleashed a wave of reprisal attacks by militants.
Pakistan’s military first launched operations in Bajaur in August 2008 and have repeatedly claimed to have flushed out a significant number of militants from their havens.
However, the violence in Taliban-dominated tribal areas has seen a dramatic increase since thousands of US troops based in Afghanistan started indiscriminate air strikes inside Pakistani territory under the pretext of hunting down the militants.
Source: Press TV