guardian.co.uk
Two bomb attacks in a busy marketplace in north-west Pakistan have killed 57 people and injured 167, local officials said on Saturday.
The authorities believe the bomb blasts in Parachinar, in the predominantly Shia Kurram tribal area, on Friday night were a co-ordinated sectarian attack by Sunni militants.
Hospital official Shabir Hussain said almost all the dead and wounded were Shias.
Shia leader Hamid Ali said the market was full of Shias, who were buying items for their evening meal that breaks the daytime fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
"We demand protection. We request the government to take action against those who routinely kill our people," he told Associated Press.
Another doctor, Zahid Hussain, earlier said the dead bodies quickly overwhelmed Parachinar's main hospital, where a large numbers of people sought medical attention after the blasts. "We have no place to keep the wounded," he said on Friday night. "Many of them are lying on the hospital floor and on the lawn."
The apparently co-ordinated bombs hit the main bazaar as people were doing their evening shopping before the iftar meal, police spokesman Fazal Naeem Khan said. One bomb was believed to have been planted on a motorcycle, he said.
The second bomb detonated about four minutes after the first, about 400 yards away from the initial blast, according to government official Javed Ali.
One man, Said Hussain, who was in the area where the second blast struck, reported seeing a teenage boy shout: "God is great!" just moments before the explosion.
Pakistan is a majority Sunni Muslim state, but around 15% percent of the population are Shias. Most Sunnis and Shias live together peacefully in Pakistan, though tensions have existed for decades.
Meanwhile, assailants attacked a Pakistani border guard post near the south-western town of Sunsater, near Iran, early on Saturday, killing seven security personnel and wounding as many others, senior government officer Akbar Hussain Durrani said.
Two bomb attacks in a busy marketplace in north-west Pakistan have killed 57 people and injured 167, local officials said on Saturday.
The authorities believe the bomb blasts in Parachinar, in the predominantly Shia Kurram tribal area, on Friday night were a co-ordinated sectarian attack by Sunni militants.
Hospital official Shabir Hussain said almost all the dead and wounded were Shias.
Shia leader Hamid Ali said the market was full of Shias, who were buying items for their evening meal that breaks the daytime fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
"We demand protection. We request the government to take action against those who routinely kill our people," he told Associated Press.
Another doctor, Zahid Hussain, earlier said the dead bodies quickly overwhelmed Parachinar's main hospital, where a large numbers of people sought medical attention after the blasts. "We have no place to keep the wounded," he said on Friday night. "Many of them are lying on the hospital floor and on the lawn."
The apparently co-ordinated bombs hit the main bazaar as people were doing their evening shopping before the iftar meal, police spokesman Fazal Naeem Khan said. One bomb was believed to have been planted on a motorcycle, he said.
The second bomb detonated about four minutes after the first, about 400 yards away from the initial blast, according to government official Javed Ali.
One man, Said Hussain, who was in the area where the second blast struck, reported seeing a teenage boy shout: "God is great!" just moments before the explosion.
Pakistan is a majority Sunni Muslim state, but around 15% percent of the population are Shias. Most Sunnis and Shias live together peacefully in Pakistan, though tensions have existed for decades.
Meanwhile, assailants attacked a Pakistani border guard post near the south-western town of Sunsater, near Iran, early on Saturday, killing seven security personnel and wounding as many others, senior government officer Akbar Hussain Durrani said.
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