25 killed in Pakistan suicide car bomb attack

A suicide bomber killed at least 25 people have been killed and injured many more in an attack at a village market in north-west Pakistan, police say. In what police are treating as a sectarian attack, a vehicle laden with explosives was driven into a hotel at a busy intersection near the army town of Kohat, near the Afghan border. It is the second bombing to hit the town, which has a history of violence between Shias and Sunni Muslims. Yesterday, six people died in a separate blast. Most of the dead in the latest attack are said to be members of the Shia Muslim minority and the hotel is said to have been owned by a Shia businessman. The blast destroyed cars, and shops at the Kacha Paka market, near the hotel, collapsed.

Syed Mehtabul Hassan, the area's mayor, said 25 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage of the hotel and shops. Several people were injured. "Dozens of shops were destroyed. Their roofs caved in and many people were trapped under the debris," a local police official told Agence France Presse news agency. "I was standing in front of my shop when all of a sudden, a car blew up outside a restaurant," Sohail Ahmed told the news service from his hospital bed. At the time of the explosion, the area was reported to be thronged with shoppers buying supplies for the weekend and the Muslim Eid festival, which is expected to start on Monday. TV footage from the local hospital showed bloodied and bandaged patients being treated by medical staff.

A Sunni extremist group calling itself Lahskar-e-Jhangvi al Almi, which has links to the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack, the BBC reported. The group has said the attack was in revenge for the death of a prominent religious leader. Maulana M Amin was killed in Hangu in June 2009. Kohat is home to both the Taliban and al-Qaida, whose Sunni extremism has fuelled several attacks. At one point barber shops in the area were warned to stop giving, what they described as, un-Islamic haircuts, the broadcaster said.

A Pakistan army operation against the Taliban in the Swat valley, north west Pakistan has killed more than 1,800 alleged militants, the army said, and at least three leaders of the Swat Taliban were arrested. But seven militants were arrested and another 13 surrendered during search missions over the last 24 hours, Pakistan’s army said.And there are signs that the Taliban is trying to regroup under its new leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who took over as chief of the Pakistani Taliban, a Sunni group, after its previous leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a US missile.

By Hayley Harvis for SOS Children