Pakistan Death Toll Soars above 100
The death toll from Friday's double suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan has risen to at least 102 people, making it the deadliest attack in the country this year.
Rescuers dug up bodies from the attack on a government office in the village of Yakaghund overnight, while other victims died of their injuries in hospital.
The death toll from Friday's double suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan has risen to at least 102 people, making it the deadliest attack in the country this year.
Rescuers dug up bodies from the attack on a government office in the village of Yakaghund overnight, while other victims died of their injuries in hospital.
"We have recovered more bodies from the debris of dozens of shops that were razed to the ground by the blast and the number of dead has increased," Rasool Khan, a political official in the Mohmand district, said on Saturday.
Khan said he believed he was the target of the two blasts that went off outside his office as local tribal elders gathered.
"There were two blasts. The first one was small but the second was a big one," Khan said.
Critical condition
Mairaj Mohammad, another local official, confirmed the latest toll and said there were 98 people receiving treatment in different hospitals.
"Some of them are in critical condition," he said.
The death toll on Friday had stood at 62 people, but Saturday's announcement made it the deadliest attack since a car bomb destroyed a market in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 125 people in October 2009.
About 80 shops were damaged or destroyed and 28 prisoners escaped from a prison because of the attack. Officials said they were ordinary criminals and not linked to the Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday. Ikhram Mullah, a spokesman for the group, telephoned a local TV station to lay claim to the blasts.
The Pakistani government has launched a series of offensives against the Taliban and similar groups in recent months, and Mohmand has seen fierce fighting between the two sides.
In recent months the government has employed the tactic of using civilian militias to fight the Taliban, with limited sucess.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan said that the bombings indicated a change of tactics for the Taliban. "It was a political target," he said "We have seen the Taliban attack military targets before - that's their modus operandi - but this was a civilian target."
Pakistan has been hit by a wave of deadly attacks in recent months. Last week two suicide bombers killed at least 42 people in an attack on Pakistan's most important Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
The death toll from Friday's double suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan has risen to at least 102 people, making it the deadliest attack in the country this year.
Rescuers dug up bodies from the attack on a government office in the village of Yakaghund overnight, while other victims died of their injuries in hospital.
"We have recovered more bodies from the debris of dozens of shops that were razed to the ground by the blast and the number of dead has increased," Rasool Khan, a political official in the Mohmand district, said on Saturday.
Khan said he believed he was the target of the two blasts that went off outside his office as local tribal elders gathered.
"There were two blasts. The first one was small but the second was a big one," Khan said.
Critical condition
Mairaj Mohammad, another local official, confirmed the latest toll and said there were 98 people receiving treatment in different hospitals.
"Some of them are in critical condition," he said.
The death toll on Friday had stood at 62 people, but Saturday's announcement made it the deadliest attack since a car bomb destroyed a market in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 125 people in October 2009.
About 80 shops were damaged or destroyed and 28 prisoners escaped from a prison because of the attack. Officials said they were ordinary criminals and not linked to the Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday. Ikhram Mullah, a spokesman for the group, telephoned a local TV station to lay claim to the blasts.
The Pakistani government has launched a series of offensives against the Taliban and similar groups in recent months, and Mohmand has seen fierce fighting between the two sides.
In recent months the government has employed the tactic of using civilian militias to fight the Taliban, with limited sucess.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan said that the bombings indicated a change of tactics for the Taliban. "It was a political target," he said "We have seen the Taliban attack military targets before - that's their modus operandi - but this was a civilian target."
Pakistan has been hit by a wave of deadly attacks in recent months. Last week two suicide bombers killed at least 42 people in an attack on Pakistan's most important Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore.
The death toll from Friday's double suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan has risen to at least 102 people, making it the deadliest attack in the country this year.
Rescuers dug up bodies from the attack on a government office in the village of Yakaghund overnight, while other victims died of their injuries in hospital.
"We have recovered more bodies from the debris of dozens of shops that were razed to the ground by the blast and the number of dead has increased," Rasool Khan, a political official in the Mohmand district, said on Saturday.
Khan said he believed he was the target of the two blasts that went off outside his office as local tribal elders gathered.
"There were two blasts. The first one was small but the second was a big one," Khan said.
Critical condition
Mairaj Mohammad, another local official, confirmed the latest toll and said there were 98 people receiving treatment in different hospitals.
"Some of them are in critical condition," he said.
The death toll on Friday had stood at 62 people, but Saturday's announcement made it the deadliest attack since a car bomb destroyed a market in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 125 people in October 2009.
About 80 shops were damaged or destroyed and 28 prisoners escaped from a prison because of the attack. Officials said they were ordinary criminals and not linked to the Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday. Ikhram Mullah, a spokesman for the group, telephoned a local TV station to lay claim to the blasts.
The Pakistani government has launched a series of offensives against the Taliban and similar groups in recent months, and Mohmand has seen fierce fighting between the two sides.
In recent months the government has employed the tactic of using civilian militias to fight the Taliban, with limited sucess.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan said that the bombings indicated a change of tactics for the Taliban. "It was a political target," he said "We have seen the Taliban attack military targets before - that's their modus operandi - but this was a civilian target."
Pakistan has been hit by a wave of deadly attacks in recent months. Last week two suicide bombers killed at least 42 people in an attack on Pakistan's most important Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore.