Roadside bomb kills at least 10 people in minibus, Pakistan official says

Parachinar:  A remote-controlled roadside bomb targeting a minibus killed at least 10 people and wounded several others today in Pakistan's remote northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official in the region said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Shahid Ali Khan, a senior regional Pakistani official, told Reuters militants planted a roadside bomb in the Kurram Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). "When the passengers were coming, they detonated the remote-controlled bomb," said Khan, who is the assistant political agent for Kurram Agency in FATA, which borders Afghanistan.

Several wounded people were taken to hospital in the nearby town of Parachinar, Khan said. The military has sent a helicopter to evacuate the wounded to the city of Peshawar. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office said the premier had "directed relevant authorities to extend maximum support for treatment of the injured". Parachinar and the surrounding area has suffered sectarian tension between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in the past.

Several major attacks have rocked the Kurram Agency area this year, including a bomb blast at a mosque that killed more than 20 people in March in Parachinar. In January, a bomb planted in a busy vegetable market also killed 21 people. Both blasts were claimed by the Pakistani Taliban militant Islamist group.