Blast in North Pakistan Leaves at Least 8 Dead

An explosion ripped through a munitions shop at a bazaar in a northwestern tribal town Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding 35, two Pakistani army officials and an intelligence agent said.

It was unclear what caused the blast, but the army officials ruled out a bomb and said some of the victims appeared to have been handling weapons. The officials, who gave the death toll as 12, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

“It was not terrorism,” said the intelligence official in the nearby town of Tank.

The intelligence agent said eight people were killed and 19 injured. It was not immediately possible to reconcile his figures with those given by the army officers.

The dead included the shop owner, the intelligence official said.

An official statement issued in the northwestern city of Peshawar also said that eight people were killed and put the number of people injured at more than 50.

The explosion occurred in Jandola, a town near the Afghan border in the rugged South Waziristan tribal area, said Mir Abbas, a government administrator in the area.

The weapons shop, three other businesses and a restaurant were heavily damaged.