#Pakistan - #Daesh claims responsibility for #Orakzai attack - Daesh claimed “57 Shiites were killed

Death toll rises to 33 in marketplace suicide attack in northwestern tribal region.

Daesh has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that ripped through a marketplace in Pakistan’s restive northwestern tribal region, as the death toll climbed to 33.

The blast happened during a regular Friday bazaar in Kalaya, a town in a Shiite-dominated area of Orakzai tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

In a statement posted on Amaq, the group’s new site, Daesh claimed “57 Shiites were killed and 75 were wounded” in the attack.

However, on Saturday, Orakzai’s top official,Khalid Iqal told AFP that the death toll was 33, up from 31 on Friday. “Among the dead are three Hindu merchants,” he added.

‘World’s most dangerous place’

Pakistan has officially denied the existence of Daesh on it’s soil, but the group has claimed responsibility for some deadly attacks in the country.

Orakzai is one of seven restive semi-autonomous tribal regions on the Afghan border, an area that has long been a focal point in the global war on terror and famously described by Barack Obama as “the most dangerous place in the world”.

Washington has said that the mountainous region provides safe havens to militants including the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaida — an allegation that Islamabad denies.

Multiple bloody military operations have been carried out in the area, officially known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and home to around five million ethnic Pashtuns.

Security has improved in the region in recent years, though lower-level attacks are still carried out with devastating regularity, often targeting Shiites in the area.

But it remains notorious for the availability of cheap guns, drugs and smuggled goods.

Earlier this year, Pakistan passed a legislation which paves the way for the tribal areas to be merged into KP province, bringing them into the political mainstream.

The move will impose the Pakistani judicial system on a region still loosely governed by British colonial-era laws and the tribal system of honour, and which has always existed on the fringes of the state.

https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/daesh-claims-responsibility-for-orakzai-attack-1.60551058