A bomb explosion has ripped through a marketplace in Kalaya town in Pakistan‘s northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killing at least 20 people, police say.
Initial results showed the blast was caused by “an improvised explosive device hidden in a carton of vegetables, which also wounded over 50 others,” Khalid Iqbal, a senior administration official in Orakzai district, told AFP news agency.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast in Kalaya town, about 60km southwest of the provincial capital Peshawar, police officials told Al Jazeera.
The area is a remote part of the Orakzai tribal district, which was recently merged with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after being governed directly by Islamabad for decades.
The blast occurred around the same time as three attackers attempted to storm the Chinese consulate in the southern port city of Karachi in an unrelated incident in which two police officials were killed.
The Karachi attack was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army separatist group.
SOURCE:
Reuters news agency
