A timed bomb blast in a minibus that killed 18 people in Pakistan's northwest today targeted a Shia Muslim leader accused of sectarian killings in the area, police said.
The deadly blast in Jawarza, near the restive town of Hangu, killed 16 passengers travelling in the explosives-laden minibus and two people in a pick-up truck nearby.
Another eight people were hospitalised with injuries, four of them in critical condition, said senior police officer Masood Khan Afridi.
The target of the bombing was apparently Shia leader Kamil Ali Shah, who Mr Afridi said was blamed for the killings of four Sunni Muslims in Hangu district in September.
'Shah, along with three co-accused in the case, was on his way to Kohat for a hearing at an anti-terrorism court,' when the bomb detonated and all four were killed in the blast, along with several others, Mr Afridi said. 'It was sectarian violence.'
A second police official confirmed the account, but no group has yet claimed responsibility for the incident.
District police chief Abdul Rashid said about 10kg of explosives had been planted in the minibus.
'The report of the bomb disposal squad shows that explosive materials fitted with a timer were placed near the gas cylinders which caused the explosion,' Mr Rashid told AFP from the scene.
In the same militant-hit district of Hangu on Friday, a female police constable was killed along with five of her relatives in a pre-dawn raid on her house by attackers armed with rockets and rifles.
