Death toll in Pakistan suicide attack rises to 31
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The death toll from a suicide motorbike bomb attack in a largely Shiite Muslim area of northwest Pakistan has risen to 31, officials said on Saturday.
Friday's attack on a market in the town of Parachinar was the deadliest in a month.
"The death toll rose to 31 after five more people died overnight," top regional administrator Sahibzada Mohammad Anees told AFP.
"We still have 35 wounded people, who had been admitted to different hospitals in Parachinar and Peshawar for treatment," he said.
A senior local administration official in Parachinar, Shahab Ali Shah, confirmed the new toll.
The bomb exploded near a mosque as the main Friday prayers took place in Parachinar, a flashpoint for sectarian violence between majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's tribal badlands on the Afghan border.
Parachinar is the main town in Kurram district, part of the semi-autonomous tribal belt where US drone strikes target Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in what Washington considers the world's largest international terror hub.
It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since a remote-controlled bomb blast killed at least 35 people in the Khyber tribal district on January 10.
A splinter group that broke away from Pakistan's umbrella Taliban faction claimed responsibility for the attack.
"We sent the suicide bomber following attacks on Sunni Muslims by the Shiite tribes in the area," Fazal Saeed told AFP by telephone, claiming to be the leader of the so-called Tehreek-e-Taliban Islami.
Since the late 1980s more than 4,000 people have been killed in outbreaks of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite militant groups in Pakistan.
According to an AFP tally, Islamist bombers and gunmen have killed more than 4,800 people across Pakistan since July 2007.
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