Pakistani Taliban bomb attacks claim 102 lives

The death toll from a suicide bombing and car bomb blast that devastated a tribal town has soared to 102 in one of Pakistan's deadliest attacks, officials said yesterday.

The explosions targeted a busy market in Yakaghund town in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt last Friday, destroying government buildings and shops and leaving victims buried under the rubble.

Local administration chief Rasool Khan said the death toll had jumped to 102, after he and other officials had earlier put the number of dead at 65.

"Some bodies were recovered from the spot and some died in hospitals overnight," he told AFP.

Another local official, Mairaj Mohammad, confirmed the higher toll and said there were 98 people receiving treatment in different hospitals. "Some of them are in critical condition," he said.

It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since a massive car bomb destroyed a market crowded with women and children in the northwestern city of Peshawar in October 2009, killing 125 people.

Khan said the toll could rise further as rescue work was underway to recover victims who are feared trapped under pulverised buildings.

Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for last Friday's blasts, saying the target was a gathering of pro-government tribal elders.

Qari Ikramullah, a spokesman for Taliban militants in the region, said in a telephone call with AFP that the elders were meeting in an administrator's office and planning to raise a lashkar, or tribal force, to fight the Taliban.