fb-pixelCar bomb kills 17 people in market in Pakistan - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Car bomb kills 17 people in market in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A car bombing in a crowded market in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region near the Afghan border Monday killed 17 people and wounded more than 40 others, officials said.

The bomb went off near the women's waiting area of a bus stop close to the office of one of the Khyber tribal area's top political officials, said Hidayat Khan, a local government official.

It was unclear if the office was the target, he added.

The dead included five boys and two women, said Abdul Qudoos, a doctor at a local hospital in Jamrud town, where the attack occurred. At least 44 people were wounded, he said.

Advertisement



Also on Monday, Taliban militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at an army convoy in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing three soldiers and wounding three others, said Nisar Ahmad, a local government official.

The soldiers were escorting a polio vaccination team outside the town of Lakki Marwat when the attack occurred, said Wazir Khan, a local resident.

The Taliban have spoken out against polio vaccination in recent months, claiming the health workers are acting as spies for the US and the vaccine itself causes harm.

In the southern city of Karachi, an unknown gunman shot and killed a Pakistani working with the World Health Organization's anti-
polio campaign, said police officer Qamar Ahmed.

Elsewhere on Monday, gunmen in the southwest killed a provincial government spokesman and two nearby police officers in an apparent sectarian attack, police said.

Associated Press