A suicide bomber killed 25 people at a market in northern Pakistan just hours after gunmen assaulted the Chinese Consulate in the southern city of Karachi, killing four.
The two attacks on opposite sides of the country were likely unconnected, but they underline the myriad security challenges Pakistan faces, including those from separatists as well as from Pakistani Taliban based in the northern border regions.
The attacker in the northern Orakzai district drove a motorcycle into the heart of a weekly market in the town of Kalaya and then blew himself up.
Pakistani authorities have long battled militants in these remote regions near the Afghan border. The region has also been marked by tension between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and the blast was near a Shiite mosque that may have been the target.
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Source: The Washington Post