Deadly blast rocks NW Pakistan

A car bombing in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least 25 people and inflicted injuries on 40 others, local police say.

The Tuesday blast rocked a busy intersection in the town of Charsadda.

“…The blast took place around 4:15 pm (1115 GMT),” district police chief Mohammad Riaz Khan was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying on Tuesday.

“This is a busy area. It is usually crowded in the evening time. It took place in the main bazaar…. There was no security lapse. I had just crossed this area one minute before the blast,” the security official added.

Rescue operations are underway at the scene. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast.

The incident amid increasing attempts by the United States and its allies to associate Pakistani militants with the Afghanistan-based Taliban while strengthening the grounds for the West’s military intervention into Pakistan.

Earlier in the day, Taliban’s top commander in Afghanistan Abdul Manan denounced the bombings and terrorist activities conducted by Pakistan’s Tehrik-e-Taliban militants (TTP), according to a local TV channel.

The gunmen based in the lawless Pakistani tribal belt have been increasingly troubling the country’s military and police force.

Manan denied any links between the Afghan militants and the TTP saying that the Taliban ‘have their own policies and agenda in Afghanistan’.

“…The TTP has no links with al-Qaeda”, which Washington blames for the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, he said.