Pakistan: At least 10, including 6 children, killed in Kurram tribal region blast

At least 10 people, including six children and two women, were killed on Tuesday in a blast in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal region. Reports state a passenger van was targeted with a remote-controlled bomb in Kontara village in central Kurram Agency.

As many as 13 people were gravely injured in the incident. Officials said the injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital.

Inter Services Public Relations, Pakistan military's media wing, said a special Mi-17 helicopter has been sent to the Kurram Agency headquarters in Parachinar to take the injured to Peshawar for treatment.

The blast site has been cordoned off by the security officials, and a search operation is underway. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. The region is frequently targeted by sectarian violence.

Around 28 people were killed and 100 others were injured last month in the same region, when a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a Shiite imambargah in a busy market in Parachinar. Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Parachinar is the administrative headquarters of the agency, and the violence in the region has resulted in angry protests by the residents.

In February, more than 80 people were killed and dozens were wounded in an attack by the Islamic State (ISIS) group on a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan.

In January, at least 21 people were killed in the same region when an explosion hit a vegetable market in Parachinar, located near the border with Afghanistan.