A suicide attacker and a suspected car bomb caused carnage in a busy Pakistani market outside a government office Friday, killing 65 people and burying victims under pulverised shops. The devastation struck Yakaghund town in the district of Mohmand, one of seven that make up Pakistan's northwest tribal belt which Washington has branded a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on earth. “We suspect that there were two blasts. One was a suicide attack on a motorbike. We have also found the wreckage of a car. It indicates that a car bomb was detonated with a remote control,” local administration official Rasool Khan said. “The target is not clear but it could have been the local administration and members of a peace committee who come to my office for routine weekly meetings on Fridays.” Among the wounded were several people displaced by fighting between security forces and militants, who were collecting relief goods near the blast site. Residents said five children, aged between 5 and 10, and several women were among dead. Witnesses said a huge explosion damaged an administration office, shops, a jail and other buildings in the small town not far from the border with Afghanistan. Rescue workers were sifting through the debris of partially collapsed buildings and officials feared the death toll could rise further. A security official at the scene said the blast also damaged a nearby prison wall and several inmates had escaped. Khan said women and tribal police were among the dead, adding that dozens of shops had been flattened and more than 100 people were treated for injuries. The force of the explosives collapsed flimsy wooden roofs on more than two dozen shops, twisted shutters and snapped off doors. Slippers and empty bottles of soft drinks littered the market along with bloodied chunks of flesh. Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, immediate suspicion fell on militant groups. Video footage from the area showed dozens of men searching through piles of yellow brick and mud rubble in search of survivors. “After the blast, I saw destruction. I saw bodies everywhere. I saw the injured crying for help,” security official Esa Khan said in the main northwest city of Peshawar, where he helped escort some of the wounded to a hospital. Abdul Wadood, 19, was sitting in a vehicle nearby when the attack happened. “I only heard the deafening blast and lost consciousness,” he said while being treated for head and arm wounds in Peshawar. “I found myself on a hospital bed after opening my eyes. I think those who planned or carried out this attack are not humans.”
