At least eight people were killed and around a dozen injured on Friday when a bomb ripped through a market in Pakistan’s restive tribal region along the Afghan border, a security official said.
The blast took place in Mehbran Kille village in Khyber, one of the seven tribal districts where Pakistani security forces are fighting Taliban and al—Qaeda militants.
“The bomb was planted outside an ammunition shop,” said an intelligence official, adding that the blast destroyed three shops and four vehicles.
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that eight people had died while 13 were injured.
Pakistani forces have carried out several offensives against militants in Khyber district but with little success.
The region remains a safe—haven for Islamist insurgents who have also targeted convoys carrying supplies for NATO troops from Pakistan’s southern port of Karachi into land—locked Afghanistan.
The Taliban—linked groups have carried out dozens of strikes on civilian and official targets across Pakistan, killing more than 3,500 people since 2007.
A suicide bomber narrowly missed a military convoy when he detonated his explosives in a busy street on Thursday in Mingora, the main city in the north—western district of Swat. Five people died and around 50
