Peshawar, Pakistan: At least 35 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded Friday in three separate bomb attacks in two major Pakistani cities, officials said.
A suicide bomber was involved in the first car bombing near the office of the provincial police chief in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 11 people and wounded 20. There were conflicting claims of responsibility for this attack from different extremist groups.
Hours later twin bombings, minutes apart, hit a crowded market in a city in Parachinar, the main city in the Kurram tribal region and killed 24 people, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain.
The bomb attacks come a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan. TV footage showed panicked people rushing to safety following the Parachinar market bombings.
Mohammad Amir, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said they had received 24 dead bodies and more than 20 of the wounded were listed in critical condition.
It was unclear who was behind the attack in Parachinar.
Friday's car bombing in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, was powerful enough that it was heard across the city, shattering windows on nearby buildings, said police spokesman Shahzada Farhat.
Wasim Beg, a spokesman at a government hospital, said the death toll from the bombing had risen to 11 throughout the morning and some of the wounded remained in critical condition.
TV footage showed several badly damaged cars and a road littered with broken glass.
Hours after the attack, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility. Asad Mansoor, the militants' spokesman, vowed more such attacks as part of the extremist group's campaign aimed at imposing Islamic laws in the country.
Later Friday, the Islamic State group said in a competing claim that it was behind the attack, adding that one of its followers targeted the police post in Quetta, detonating his suicide belt there. It also released a photograph of the alleged attacker, identified as Abu Othman al-Khorasani.
The competing claims could not be reconciled.