ISIS claims suicide attack on market in Pakistani tribal district

Islamic State (IS) extremists have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that destroyed a market in Pakistan’s northwestern Orakzai tribal district, killing at least 35 people and injuring more than 50.

Police had initially said that a bomb hidden in a box of vegetables exploded in the crowded marketplace on November 23 in the town of Klaya near the border with Afghanistan.

The town is in a Shi’ite-dominated part of the Orakzai district, which was one of seven autonomous tribal regions in Pakistan until earlier in 2018, when it was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

In a statement issued on November 24 on the IS militant website Amaq, the group claimed the blast was caused by an IS suicide bomber.

IS also claimed 57 Shi’ite Muslims were killed and 75 were wounded by the blast.

Source: Rferl