At least 33 people were killed and 30 others injured in a gun attack carried out on passenger vans in the lower Kurram area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday, according to hospital official Dr Muhammad Ishaq.
The medical superintendent of the Tehsil Head Quarters (THQ) Hospital Alizai said the injured were being referred to various hospitals in the district and some to Peshawar.
President Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemned the incident and expressed his condolences to the bereaved of the deceased.
“Attacking innocent passengers is a cowardly and inhumane act,” he was quoted as saying in a post on X by PPP’s media cell.
He added that those responsible for the incident should be punished. He urged that timely medical aid be provided to the injured.
The incident comes amid a sharp uptick in the number of terrorist attacks in Balochistan and KP.
Attacks escalated after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan outfit broke a fragile ceasefire agreement with the government in 2022 and vowed to target security forces.
Last month, two terrorists were killed during an intelligence-based operation in KP’s North Waziristan district.
Twelve security personnel were martyred after a checkpost was targeted in the Mali Khel area of KP’s Bannu, the military’s media affairs wing said a day ago.
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