Carnage in Pakistan market attack

At least 33 people have been killed and dozens injured in a suicide car bomb attack at a village market in north-west Pakistan, police say.The explosion is said to have taken place at a busy intersection close to the garrison town of Kohat.

Most of the dead are said to be members of the Shia Muslim minority. The area has a history of sectarian tension.A little-known militant group calling itself Lahskar-e-Jhangvi al-Almi says it carried out the attack.It says the attack was in revenge for the death of a prominent religious leader, Maulana M Amin, who was killed in Hangu in June.

Correspondents say the group is likely to be linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni extremist group which has links to the Taliban.Astarzai village, where the blast took place, has a substantial Shia population and is close to the Orakzai tribal region, a stronghold of the Taliban’s present chief.

Hakimullah Mehsud took over as the leader of the Pakistani Taliban - a Sunni group - after his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a US missile strike.The head of Astarzai’s village council told the BBC it was still waiting for machinery to help lift the debris and pull out bodies.“The blast took place at 11am, and now it’s 5pm, but there is still no shovel or crane available to lift the debris or pull out dead bodies.“People are doing it with their bare hands,” Mehtabul Hasan told the BBC.Police officials said that not all of the bodies had been identified because of the extent of the injuries.

The car bomb was detonated close to a hotel owned by a Shia Muslim businessman.A local police official told the AFP news agency: “Dozens of shops were destroyed. Their roofs caved in and many people were trapped under the debris.”Television footage from the local hospital showed bloodied and bandaged patients being treated by medical staff.“I was standing in front of my shop when all of a sudden, a car blew up outside a restaurant,” Sohail Ahmed told AFP from his hospital bed.

-BBC