A suicide car bomb tore through a market, killing 33 people and trapping victims under smashed shops on Friday as families bought supplies for a major religious festival, police said. The explosion flung body parts across the bazaar and gutted shops in Ustarzai which lies between the garrison city of Kohat and Hangu, another town with a history of sectarian unrest.
A spokesman for the little known Lashkar-i-Jhangvi al Almi militant group claimed the attack. The area was packed with shoppers buying food and delicacies for the weekend and the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday. Bodies lay on the road and casualties were trapped under the debris from shops that caved in after the blast when the bomber rammed a jeep packed with 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of explosives into another vehicle, police said.
Sohail Ahmad, a shopkeeper in the market whose left leg was broken in the attack, told AFP that he blacked out. "I was standing in front of my shop when all of a sudden, a car blew up outside a restaurant. I went unconscious. I don't remember anything else. When I came round, I was in hospital," Ahmad said from his hospital bed. Police spokesman Fazal Naeem in nearby Kohat said 33 people were killed and 56 others were wounded.
"There are 33 dead and more than 50 injured. Twenty-five have been identified while the rest are in a very bad condition. The bodies have been completely damaged," said a North West Frontier Province police spokesman. Police said the bomber came from the nearby Orakzai.
"This is a Shia-dominated area and we cannot rule out the possibility that this was a sectarian-motivated attack," said police officer Ali Hasan. Soon after the blast, Shia youths took control of the bazaar and attacked two police vehicles with sticks and chanted slogans condemning the Taliban and the Pakistani government, witnesses said. "Dozens of shops were destroyed. Their roofs caved in and many people were trapped under the debris," said Hasan.