At least 39 people were killed and over 120 injured on Sunday when a suicide blast that targeted a political party’s rally in northwestern Pakistan, officials confirmed, fearing a rise in the death toll.
The blast took place during a public rally organized by the right-wing Pakistani political party, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) in Bajaur’s Khar town, Bajaur Police spokesperson Muhammad Israr said.
“At least 30 people have died and around 70 have been seriously injured who were rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital in Khar,” Israr told Arab News. He said some of the critically wounded were referred to the District Headquarters Hospital in Timergara while others were referred to Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital.
Meanwhile, Riaz Anwar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s health minister, told AFP local hospitals had reported 39 dead and 123 wounded, including 17 patients in serious condition. “It was a suicide attack, with the bomber detonating himself in close proximity to the stage,” he said.
“Seven ambulances have been deployed at the Bacha Khan International Airport to receive the injured people who are referred to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar,” Bilal Faizi, spokesperson of the Rescue 1122 service, told Arab News.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a strongly condemned the attack.
“Attack on political parties makes it clear that the enemy is against the democratic system in Pakistan, which will not be allowed,” Sharif wrote on Twitter. “Those responsible will be identified and handed strict punishments.”
“Maulana Fazlur Rehman demands the prime minister and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister hold an inquiry into the regretful incident,” a statement from the party said on Twitter.
The JUI-F urged the party’s supporters to remain calm in the wake of the attack and called on provincial and federal authorities to provide the best medical care to the injured. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “must not be allowed to bleed again.”
Tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan were long a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants who have carried out some of the deadliest attacks against the country’s security forces.
Militancy in the district declined following the Pakistan Army’s operations there, but with the return of the Afghan Taliban to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, the South Asian country has seen an uptick in violence in border areas, particularly after a fragile truce between the TTP and the state broke down in November last year.