Blast in KP's Parachinar leaves 17 injured

Several were left injured after a blast ripped through the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa city of Parachinar on Thursday, police said.

Police said the blast took place in the city's Tori bazaar. The nature of the blast has not yet been determined.

Eyewitnesses told Geo News that explosive material had been hidden in a vegetable cart which went off.

Seventeen people have been brought wounded for treatment, said hospital staff, including a child. Deputy Medical Superintendent (DMS) Parachinar Hospital Dr Qaiser Hasan said that two among the wounded are critically injured.

According to Geo News , the Turi bazaar area used to have a single track for vehicular traffic which was recently widened and split to keep apart incoming and outgoing traffic.

Despite similar incidents in the past, vendors selling their wares on carts are a common sight, and the carts are targeted by terrorist elements for such attacks.

Furthermore, such carts are found on both sides of the road and attract large volumes of people. 

PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the blast, saying "terrorists seek to target citizens and leave Pakistan in the grip of terror".

"The whole nation is united against the enemies of Pakistan," he said.

Shehbaz extended his heartfelt condolences to the affected families and prayed for the early recovery of those injured.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also condemned the attack and expressed concern over the rise of such incidents of terrorism in the country.

"Terrorists have been emboldened due to a lack of implementation of the National Action Plan," he said.

Bilawal directed all PPP representatives present in Parachinar to come to the aid of those injured. He demanded that those involved be immediately arrested.

The year 2017 in particular was a bloody year for Parachinar. The city saw a number of attacks throughout the year, the worst of which were back-to-back blasts on June 23 which left more than 70 dead and at least 300 injured.