The death toll from the powerful suicide bombing at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) workers' convention in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district rose to 54 on Monday. According to police, an initial probe on Monday suggested that the IS-affiliated Daesh terrorist organisation was behind the deadly suicide explosion. However, no one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing that injured over 200 people.
The incident occurred on Sunday at around 4 pm when more than 1,000 people were gathered under a large tent as their party prepared for parliamentary elections, expected in October or November.
Explosions in Pakistan
It is worth mentioning explosion in Pakistan is very frequent in the country. According to the government, the "Afghani terror" organisations were responsible for the increase in terror activities especially in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it shares an international border with Afghanistan. Earlier last week, a suicide blast at a historic mosque in northwest Pakistan killed a police officer. As per police, additional SHO Adnan Afridi was killed in the blast at Ali Masjid (mosque) in the tribal Jamrud tehsil bordering Peshawar.
Sunday’s bombing was one of the four worst attacks in northwestern Pakistan since 2014, when 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar.
In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. And in February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing Peshawar police headquarters.
The blast blew minutes after PM Shehbaz applauded the police force
Interestingly, today's blast happened nearly two minutes after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif lauded the efforts of law enforcement agencies, especially the police for ensuring the "best arrangements" during Ashura Day celebrations. He hailed the officials for conducting the religious ceremony with peace and "no untoward incident".
"The efforts of all law enforcement agencies, especially the police, on a peaceful Ashura day are commendable. The Interior Minister and his team, Chief Ministers, Provincial Interior Ministers including Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, IGs and administration ensured the best arrangements so that people could celebrate Ashura Day with peace and religious devotion and no untoward incident took place," he had tweeted at 4.04 pm today.
