Parachinar, Pakistan - An explosion ripped
through a car on Tuesday killing six members of a family driving
to a Pakistan village to attend a funeral in the northwestern
district of Kurram near the Afghanistan border, officials said.
It was unclear whether the blast was a landmine or a
roadside bomb planted by Islamist militants, said local
government official Akbar Iftikhar. Both the militants and the
Pakistani military use landmines.
"Three women and three men died on the spot," he said.
One survivor was in a stable condition, said Doctor Mumtaz
Hussain at a hospital in Parachinar, the main town in Kurram.
Kurram is one of the seven districts along the Afghan border
in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which have
long been home to local and foreign Islamist militants.
Kurram is a predominantly minority Shi'a Muslim region that
is often targeted by Sunni militant groups such as al Qaeda and
the Islamic State. The six family members, however, belonged to
Sunni sect, Iftikhar said.
The region has lately been the target of suspected US drone strikes, which mainly took out members of Haqqani militant
network that is allied with Afghan Taliban and operates on both
sides of the border.
The Haqqanis have been at the centre of the current tensions
between the United States and Pakistan. Washington alleges that
Islamabad supports the Haqqani militants, who attack the US and allied NATO troops in Afghanistan.