ARY: Lakki Marwat death toll reaches 96

LAKKI MARWAT: Death toll in Friday evening’s suicide attack on a gathering in Lakki Marwat has hit 89 while several others are critically injured, reported ARY NEWS.

A suicide bomber had rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the outer wall of a playground in Shah Hassan Khail area when scores of people were gathered there to watch a volleyball match between two local teams.

Some 89 people, most of them children, have so far been killed in the deadly attack while more than 70 injured.

Those wounded were rushed to District Hospital and other nearby medical facilities where emergency have been imposed.

Police, other law enforcement agencies’ personnel and paramedics arrived at the scene and cordoned off the site.

Police said Friday’s bombing in Lakki Marwat city, not far from South Waziristan, was possible retaliation for local residents’ efforts to keep militants out of the area.

“The locality has been a hub of militants. Locals set up a militia and expelled the militants from this area. This attack seems to be reaction to their expulsion,” local police chief Ayub Khan told reporters.

He said the bomber drove onto the field, which lies in a congested neighborhood, during the volleyball contest. Some nearby houses collapsed, and “we fear that some 10 or so people might have been trapped in the rubble,” Khan said.

In addition, a group of local tribal elders were holding a meeting at a mosque nearby. The mosque was damaged and some people there died, he said.