PESHAWAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - An explosion in a busy vegetable market killed at least 21 people on Saturday in Pakistan’s remote northwestern tribal region, an official said, in an attack jointly claimed by the Pakistani Taliban and a branch of the sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

About 40 others were wounded in the blast in Kurram region, near the border with Afghanistan, said Sajid Hussain Turi, member of the National Assembly from the region.

“We received 21 bodies of the local tribal people killed in the blast,” Turi said, adding that there would be a mass funeral followed by a demonstration over the attack.

Spokesmen for the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami said the two groups coordinated the attack together.

Mohammad Khurassani, a spokesman for the Mehsud faction of the Pakistani Taliban, said the attack was to avenge Tuesday’s killing of the leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Asif Chotoo, by police in the eastern province of Punjab.

Ali bin Sufyan, spokesman for LeJ’s Al Alami faction, told Reuters his group had coordinated the attack with the Pakistani Taliban. The Al Alami militants in the past have claimed to have coordinated attacks with Middle East-based Islamic State’s branch in Pakistan, including the November bombing of a Muslim shrine that killed 52 people, but the group also allies with the Taliban.

Reports differed on the cause of the explosion.

Turi said a homemade bomb had been planted in a pile of tomatoes and exploded as people gathered in the market in Parachinar, Kurram’s main town, early on Saturday morning.

Taliban militants have been active around Parachinar in the past, ad the town has also suffered sectarian tension between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

Another Kurram official, Sabzali Khan, said early reports had suggested that a suicide bomber was responsible for the blast.

An eyewitness, Ashiq Hussain, said he saw bodies strewn around the market and wounded people crying out for help.

“There was no ambulance, and people had to carry the injured in cars and private pickup trucks to the hospital,” Hussain told Reuters.

A statement from Pakistan’s military said army helicopters had been dispatched to evacuate the wounded. </s> The Islamic State Saturday claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed 21 people and wounded more than 50 others in Quetta, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province. A suicide bomber blew himself in the Hazarganj fruits and vegetable market in Quetta on Friday morning, in an attack believed to be targeting the minority Hazara Shia community.

The ISIS on Saturday released a photograph of the suicide attacker along with his name and said the attack targeted Shia Muslims, according to the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activities. “The Islamic State’s Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed killing and wounding 70 Hazara Shias and Pakistani soldiers in a suicide bombing in Quetta,” it said.

The Pakistani officials have repeatedly denied presence of the ISIS in the country, but the Middle Eastern terror group has claimed a number of attacks in the past. On Friday, a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it collaborated with the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

The LeJ is a Sunni militant group, which has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks against the minority Shia community in Pakistan, including the 2013 blasts in Quetta that killed over 200 Hazara Shias. </s> Pakistani authorities have blamed another militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), for the late-night siege, though the Islamic State claim included photographs of three alleged attackers.

Hundreds of trainees were stationed at the facility when masked gunmen stormed the college on the outskirts of Quetta late on Monday. Some cadets were taken hostage during the raid, which lasted nearly five hours. Most of the dead were cadets.

"Militants came directly into our barrack. They just barged in and started firing point-blank. We started screaming and running around in the barrack," one police cadet who survived told media.

Other cadets spoke of jumping out of windows and cowering under beds as masked gunmen hunted them down. Video footage from inside one of the barracks showed blackened walls and rows of charred beds.

Islamic State's Amaq news agency published the claim of responsibility, saying three IS fighters "used machine guns and grenades, then blew up their explosive vests in the crowd".

Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of the province of Baluchistan, whose capital is Quetta, said the gunmen attacked a dormitory in the training facility, while cadets rested and slept.

"Two attackers blew up themselves, while a third one was shot in the head by security men," Bugti said. Earlier, officials had said there were five to six gunmen.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army chief General Raheel Sharif both travelled to Quetta after the attack and participated in a special security meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister's office said.

One of the top military commanders in Baluchistan, General Sher Afgun, told media that calls intercepted between the attackers and their handlers suggested they were from the sectarian Sunni militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

"We came to know from the communication intercepts that there were three militants who were getting instructions from Afghanistan," Afgun told media, adding that the Al Alami faction of LeJ was behind the attack.

LeJ, whose roots are in the heartland Punjab province, has a history of carrying out sectarian attacks in Baluchistan, particularly against the minority Hazara Shias. Pakistan has previously accused LeJ of colluding with al Qaeda.

Authorities launched a crackdown against LeJ last year, particularly in Punjab province. In a major blow to the organisation, Malik Ishaq, the group's leader, was killed in July 2015 alongside 13 members of the central leadership in what police say was a failed escape attempt.

"Two, three days ago we had intelligence reports of a possible attack in Quetta city, that is why security was beefed up in Quetta, but they struck at the police training college," Sanaullah Zehri, chief minister of Baluchistan, told the Geo TV channel.

The Hakeemullah Mehsud faction of the Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement, but when members of the group were asked about the statement, they could not confirm it was authentic.

Monday night's assault on the police college was the deadliest in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 70 people in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta in August.

The August attack was claimed by IS, but also by a Pakistani Taliban faction, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar.

The military had dismissed previous Islamic State claims of responsibility and last month said it had crushed the Middle East-based group's attempt to expand in Pakistan. It also dismissed previous IS claims of responsibility as 'propaganda'.
Lashkar-i-Jhangvi al-Alami and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan released joint statements claiming responsibility through text messages sent to journalists.