PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb apparently targeting a mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Parachinar killed at least 22 people on Friday and wounded dozens in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

The explosion in a remote area bordering Afghanistan came as people gathered for Friday prayers near the women’s entrance of a Shia mosque in the central bazaar, the latest in a series of attacks across Sunni-majority Pakistan this year.

The local political agent, Ikramullah Khan, said the death toll had reached 22, with 70 wounded.

Sajid Hussain, a parliamentarian from Parachinar, said gunfire preceded the blast, which he described as a suicide attack. The city is located in an area with a large Shia population.

“The attack took place in a busy area and a women’s mosque appears to be the target,” he said.

The banned Islamist militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), often referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, said the blast was part of its operation Ghazi, named after a radical Islamist leader killed by Pakistani security forces in 2007.

Following a string of earlier incidents this year, the latest attack adds to fears of an increase in sectarian violence in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state of some 200 million people.

Last month, more than 80 people were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan that was claimed by Islamic State.

Residents gather near a damaged shop in a market after a blast in Parachinar, Pakistan. REUTERS/Stringer

In January, at least 21 people were killed when an explosion hit a vegetable market in Parachinar, capital of the Kurram tribal region, where Pakistani security forces have battled militant groups for years.

That attack was claimed by the TTP and a branch of another militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami.

WOUNDED CARRIED IN CARS, AMBULANCES

Authorities said a military rescue helicopter had been sent to the scene to help evacuate the injured.

Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in the region, said five bodies, including a woman and two children, and more than three dozen wounded had been brought to the hospital and an appeal for blood donors had been made.

“Patients are being brought to us in private cars and ambulances and we have received over three dozen patients so far,” Hussain told Reuters.

The attacks have shattered hopes that Pakistan may have come through the militant violence that has scarred its recent history and increased pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government to show it was improving security.

Sharif condemned Friday’s attack and said the government would keep up efforts to “eliminate the menace of terrorism”.

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In a statement, he said: “The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil.”

In the wake of last month’s attack in southern Sindh province, security forces launched a major crackdown across Pakistan, killing or detaining hundreds of suspected militants and closing off the border with Afghanistan for several days.</s>A bomb apparently targeting a mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Parachinar killed at least 22 people on Friday and wounded dozens in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. The explosion in a remote area bordering Afghanistan came as people gathered for Friday prayers near the women's entrance of a Shia mosque in the central bazaar, the latest in a series of attacks across Sunni-majority Pakistan this year.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Reuters.</s>A bomb apparently targeting a mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Parachinar killed at least 22 people on Friday and wounded dozens in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

The explosion in a remote area bordering Afghanistan came as people gathered for Friday prayers near the women's entrance of a Shia mosque in the central bazaar, the latest in a series of attacks across Sunni-majority Pakistan this year.

The local political agent, Ikramullah Khan, said the death toll had reached 22, with 70 wounded.

Sajid Hussain, a parliamentarian from Parachinar, said gunfire preceded the blast, which he described as a suicide attack. The city is located in an area with a large Shia population.

"The attack took place in a busy area and a women's mosque appears to be the target," he said.</s>PESHAWAR — A powerful car bomb exploded near a minority Shiite Muslim place of worship in the northwest town of Parachinar on Friday, killing at least 22 people and wounding over 70 others, officials said.

Mushtaq Ghani, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the attack took place near Parachinar's Shiite mosque, which is located near the Noor Market. TV footage showed people transporting the victims in ambulances and private vehicles.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack. Spokesman Asad Mansoor did not give details, saying the group would issue a statement later.

The blast was so powerful it also damaged vehicles and nearby shops, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain. He said authorities have declared an emergency and rescuers were transporting the dead and wounded to nearby hospitals.

Parachinar is a key town in the Kurram tribal region bordering Afghanistan, and it has been racked by sectarian violence in the past. The region was also once a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban and Sunni militant groups. Although the army says it has cleared the Kurram region of militants, violence has continued there.

Mansoor and Lashker-e-Jhangvi, another banned Sunni sectarian militant group, have claimed responsibility for previous such attacks in the region, where Shiite Muslims are in the majority.

Hussain said Shiites were apparently the target of the latest attack.

Two doctors at the town's government-run hospital said the facility received 22 bodies and more than 70 wounded. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media. Sabir Hussain, a hospital official, said the Pakistan army used helicopters to transport 40 wounded to hospitals in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Angered over the attack, some residents were seen chanting slogans against the government. Security forces fired shots in the air and dispersed the crown, according to officials.

Earlier, the Pakistan army said it dispatched a helicopter along with a team of medical doctors to help the victims and evacuate wounded persons to hospitals in other cities for treatment.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a statement condemned the bombing and vowed to eliminate terrorism. "The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil," he said.

Friday's blast came hours after sate-run media said Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain had signed a bill removing the last hurdle for the revival of military courts to try terrorism suspects.

The development came days after Pakistan's Senate and National Assembly separately passed a constitutional amendment to extend the practice, which has been in place for two years. A previous 2015 amendment established the military courts for a two-year mandate that expired in January.

The move to send terror suspects to military courts followed the December 2014 Taliban attack on an army run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed 154 people — mostly schoolchildren.

Pakistan at the time also lifted its moratorium on the death penalty and it has executed over 400 people, but most of them were linked to routine murders.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's army said Friday it killed a "high-value" Pakistani Taliban leader, Mehmood-ul-Hassan, along with an associate in a raid in the South Waziristan tribal region. In a statement, it said troops also seized a cache of weapons from the hideouts of slain militants, who for years operated from the region to orchestrate attacks in the country.

Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press Writers Zarar Khan and Ishtiaq Mahsud contributed to this report from Islamabad and Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan.</s>PARACHINAR, Pakistan: An explosion apparently targeting a mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Parachinar, in a remote area bordering Afghanistan, killed at least 22 people on Friday and wounded dozens, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the blast, which took place as people gathered for Friday prayers near the women's entrance of a Shia mosque in the central bazaar, follows a series of attacks this year.

The local political agent, Ikramullah Khan, said the death toll had reached 22, with 70 injured.

A parliamentarian from Parachinar, Sajid Hussain, said gunfire preceded the blast, which he described as a suicide attack.

"The attack took place in a busy area and a women's mosque appears to be the target," he said.

Last month, more than 80 people were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan that was claimed by Islamic State.

In January, at least 21 people were killed when an explosion hit a vegetable market in Parachinar, capital of the Kurram tribal region, where Pakistani security forces have battled militant groups for years.

Authorities in mainly Sunni-Muslim Pakistan said a military rescue helicopter had been sent to the scene to help evacuate the injured.

Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in the region, said five bodies, including a woman and two children, and more than three dozen wounded had been brought to the hospital and an appeal for blood donors had been made.

"Patients are being brought to us in private cars and ambulances and we have received over three dozen patients so far," Hussain told Reuters.

The attacks have shattered hopes that Pakistan may have come through the militant violence that has scarred its recent history and increased pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to show it was improving security.

Sharif condemned the attack and said the government would keep up efforts to "eliminate the menace of terrorism".

In a statement, he said: "The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil."</s>A powerful car bomb exploded near a minority Shiite Muslim place of worship in the northwest town of Parachinar on Friday, killing at least 22 people and wounding over 70 others, officials said. Mushtaq Ghani, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the attack took place near Parachinar's Shiite mosque, which is located near the Noor Market.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Now Newspaper.</s>PESHAWAR - At least 24 people were killed and 70 others injured on Friday when a car bomb exploded near an Imambargah in Parachinar, the main town of Kurram Agency.

Local sources said a suicide bomber hit the explosives-laden vehicle against a telephone pylon near the women's entrance of the mosque in Shendak Bazaar before triggering the bomb to target people gathered for Friday prayers.

Political Agent Ikramullah Khan confirmed the casualties. He, however, could not confirm if the bomber was sitting in the car when it was blasted.

"We have 22 dead bodies here at the hospital and 57 injured, including women and children," Moeen Begum, a surgeon at the local government-run hospital, told a foreign news agency.

The victims included government officials and students, who were returning home. A woman and two children were also among the dead.

Local people rushed to the site and shifted the injured to Agency Kurram Headquarters Hospital. Later, many of the injured were airlifted to Peshawar via an army helicopter.

Several shops and vehicles were damaged in the blast while shots of gunfire were also heard flowing the explosion.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a faction of the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed the responsibility for the attack – saying it was part of its operation Ghazi and the target was the Shia community.

The banned militant group was also part of the wave of attacks which shook the country in February, claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb in Lahore which killed 14 people.

To express their anger against the political administration and federal government for inadequate security, the Tori Bangush tribe staged a sit-in in front of the political administration office and demanded the government provide them security.

They said that it was not the first time that innocent people were targeted and such incidents were happening due to the political administration’s failure to put in place a robust security regime in the area. The protester placed the coffins of the dead on the main road and chanted slogans against the government.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra condemned the attack and expressed sorrow over the loss of precious lives in the tragedy. He said that innocent people would not be left at the mercy of the terrorists. Terming the attack cowardly, he said such acts could not deter the national resolve to eliminate militancy and terrorism.

AGENCIES ADD: Kurram is one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal districts which are governed according to local laws and customs.

Its main town, Parachinar was the location of the first major militant attack in the country in 2017, a bomb in a different market which killed 24 people in January and was also claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

The district is known for sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shias, who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's population of 200 million.

Last month, more than 80 people were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan that was claimed by Islamic State.

In January, at least 21 people were killed when an explosion hit a vegetable market in Parachinar, capital of the Kurram tribal region, where Pakistani security forces have battled militant groups for years.

That attack was claimed by the TTP and a branch of another militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami.

The wave of violence dented optimism after the country appeared to be making strong gains in its decade-and-a-half long war on militancy, with analysts speaking of a militant resurgence.

Pakistan Army launched a crackdown and temporarily closed the border with Afghanistan, which it accused of harbouring the militants who had carried out the attacks.

Politicians also voted to extend legislation creating secret military courts to try civilians on terror charges. The law had expired in January, with the controversial tribunals having hanged 12 people and ordered the executions of 149 more.

But the unrelenting attacks have shattered hopes that Pakistan may have come through the militant violence that has scarred its recent history and increased pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to show it was improving security.

Sharif condemned Friday's attack and said the government would keep up efforts to "eliminate the menace of terrorism".

In a statement, he said: "The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil."

"Terrorists crossing dozens of checkposts and carrying out attacks puts a question mark over the progress of security institutions," Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, chief of a Shia political organisation, told AFP in Islamabad.</s>Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of Pakistan’s Taliban militant group, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack that occurred in the northwestern city of Parachinar.

An explosion Friday rocked Pakistan’s northwestern city of Parachinar killing at least 22 people and injuring over dozens, according to local officials. The blast occurred near a mosque in the Shia-dominated area of the city, reports said.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of Pakistan’s Taliban militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press. The group was also part of the series of attacks that occurred throughout Pakistan last month, including the Lahore suicide attack that killed 14 people.

Sajid Hussain, a politician from Parachinar, said gunfire led up to the blast, which he called a suicide attack.

"The attack took place in a busy area and a women's mosque appears to be the target," Hussain said, according to Reuters.

Ambulances and emergency personnel were dispatched to the area. Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in the area, told Reuters five bodies, including that of a woman and two children, and dozens of injured people were brought to the hospital.

"Patients are being brought to us in private cars and ambulances and we have received over three dozen patients so far," Hussain told the news agency.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack saying the government would keep up efforts to "eliminate the menace of terrorism."

"The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil," Sharif said in a statement.

Following the blast, some residents and local Shiite leaders took to the streets to criticize security forces and the government.

A key city in the Kurram tribal region bordering Afghanistan, Parachinar has been plagued by sectarian violence. The region was the bastion of Taliban and other Sunni militant groups and Pakistan’s army has said the insurgents were cleared from the area.</s>The explosion rocked Parachinar. The city is the capital of Kurram Agency -- a district in the federally administered tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan.

The Kurram region has endured many militant attacks because it borders war-torn Afghanistan.

Jamat Ul Ahrar, a Pakistan Taliban splinter group, claimed responsibility for the attack, in a statement sent via text to media.

At least 57 people were injured, a local health official said.

Outside a gate used by women The incident took place at 11:30 a.m. The mosque is in the city's central bazaar, outside a gate used exclusively by women, according to Shahid Ali Khan, a Kurram political official. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office issued a statement, saying the attack underscores the government's "unflinching resolve to eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country at all costs" "The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil," the statement said. claimed by the same group occurred in another part of the tribal region in September. The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for a market explosion in claimed by the same group occurred in another part of the tribal region in September. The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for a market explosion in An attack claimed by the same group occurred in another part of the tribal region in September. The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for a market explosion in Parachinar in January.</s>A car bomb exploded Friday near a Shiite Muslim mosque in the town of Parachinar in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 24 people and wounding over 100, officials said.

The bomb was detonated near the mosque, which also is not far from the Noor Market, said Mushtaq Ghani, a spokesman for the provincial government. TV footage showed victims being taken away in ambulances and private cars.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of Pakistani Taliban militants, claimed responsibility. Spokesman Asad Mansoor said in a statement that it was carried out by one of the group’s members, Abul Durda, and targeted minority Shiites, considered heretics by the militants.

The blast also damaged vehicles and nearby shops, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain, who also said Shiites were the intended target.

Kamran Ali, hospitalized with a head injury, said he was sitting in his shop when the blast took place.

“My shop partially collapsed and I was unable to move for the next 30 minutes or so, and then residents brought me to hospital,” he said. The area was littered with broken glass and spattered blood, he added.

Parachinar is a key town in the Kurram tribal region bordering Afghanistan and has been wracked by sectarian violence. The area once was a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban and Sunni militant groups. Although the army says it has cleared Kurram of militants, violence has continued.

Mansoor and Lashker-e-Jhangvi, another banned Sunni militant group, have claimed responsibility for previous attacks.

Two doctors at the government-run hospital said 22 bodies and more than 70 wounded were brought to the facility. The doctors spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Other wounded initially taken to private facilities also were brought to the government hospital.

Sabir Hussain, a hospital official, said the Pakistan army took 40 of the most critically wounded by helicopters to hospitals in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where two people died.

Angered by the attack, some residents were seen chanting slogans against the government. Security forces fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd, according to officials.

Later, mourners returned to the streets carrying the dead in caskets and staged a sit-in near the office of the area administrator. They chanted slogans calling for better security for residents who have been repeated victims of such attacks.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the bombing and vowed to eliminate terrorism.

“The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil,” Sharif said in a statement.

The bombing came hours after state-run media said President Mamnoon Hussain had signed a bill removing the last hurdle for reviving military courts to bring terrorism suspects to trial.

Pakistan’s Senate and National Assembly have already passed a constitutional amendment to extend the practice, which has been in place for two years. A previous 2015 amendment established the military courts but expired in January.

The move to use military courts followed the December 2014 Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that killed 154 people — mostly schoolchildren.

Pakistan lifted a moratorium on the death penalty at that time. Since then, it has executed over 400 people, although most were linked to routine murders.

Meanwhile, the army said it killed a “high-value” Pakistani Taliban leader, Mehmood-ul-Hassan, along with an associate in a raid in the South Waziristan tribal region. In a statement, it said troops also seized a cache of weapons from the hideouts of slain militants, who for years operated from the region to orchestrate attacks.

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A bomb targets a mosque in the city of Parachinar near the border with Afghanistan killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens more.