2023-07-30 23:08:44
The balance sheet is getting heavier. At least 44 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a suicide bombing Sunday in northwestern Pakistan during a rally by a radical Islamic party.
The attack targeted the conservative religious party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), of which more than 400 members and supporters were gathered under a tent in the town of Khar, near the border with Afghanistan.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party targeted
An initial toll reported 16 dead and 52 injured. “A senior party official was supposed to speak at the ceremony, but before he arrived a bomb exploded,” Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, inspector general of police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders with Afghanistan. Footage of the blast circulating on social media shows bodies strewn through the crowd and volunteers helping the bloodied victims into ambulances.
FLASH: In Pakistan’s northwestern Bajur district, at least 39 people have been killed and over 200 are wounded after a bomb exploded during a political rally. Stay tuned: https://t.co/bqMS82wkBv
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) July 30, 2023
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the local branch of the Islamic State (IS) group has previously claimed responsibility for attacks against JUI-F.
The party in the sights of the Islamic State group
Last year, IS said it was behind violent attacks on religious scholars affiliated with the party, which has an extensive network of mosques and madrasas (Quranic schools) in the north and west from the country. The jihadist group accuses the JUI-F of hypocrisy, the religious party having supported successive governments and the army.
Pakistan’s government is due to be dissolved in the coming weeks ahead of elections scheduled for October or November, and political parties are gearing up to campaign.
Attacks in Pakistan have increased since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 and then the end of the ceasefire between the Pakistani Taliban group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Pakistani government in late November. In January, a man, linked to the TTP according to the authorities, detonated the bomb he was carrying in a mosque inside a police base in Peshawar (northeast), killing more than 80 policemen.
Border with Afghanistan
The attacks take place mainly in the regions bordering Afghanistan. Islamabad believes that some of them are planned from Afghan soil, which Kabul denies. Analysts say militants in the former tribal areas bordering Afghanistan have grown bolder since the return of the Afghan Taliban.
Bajaur, where the explosion took place, is one of seven isolated districts bordering Afghanistan. The region has been a hotspot in the global war on terrorism.
Pakistan was once plagued by near-daily bomb attacks, but a massive military operation launched in 2014 has largely restored order. Security has since improved, with the northwest being brought under the control of Pakistani authorities after a law was passed in 2018.
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