PAKHTUNKHWA: A blast triggered by a suicide bomber at a political party meeting in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province killed 44 people and injured more than 100, Dawn reported on Sunday.
According to reports, the meeting organised by Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was going on in Khar in Bajaur district when the blast occurred at around 4 pm.
Television footage taken at the site showed ambulances engaged in moving the injured to hospitals. However, no rebel group has claimed responsibility for the attack till now, sources said.
The majority of the injured people’s condition was informed to be critical.
Maulana Ziaullah Jan, a prominent JUI-F leader in Khar, was also reported to have passed away in the blast, according to Bajaur District Emergency Officer Saad Khan. He also informed that many of those injured are being shifted to nearby hospitals in Peshawar and Timergera.
A thorough investigation into the incident was by demanded the chief of JUI-F, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the Khyber province's caretaker Chief Minister, Azam Khan. Rehman also urged party workers to donate blood to the injured at the hospitals.
He also urged JUI workers to remain peaceful and stated that federal and provincial governments should provide the best treatment to the injured.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Azam Khan slammed those behind the blast and sought a report of the incident from the district administration. The death toll was confirmed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali, who is also a central member of JUI-F.
Speaking to reporters after the blast, JUI-F leader Hafiz Hamdullah said he missed being present at the meeting due to some prior commitments, although he was invited.
The JUI-F leader was quoted as saying, “I strongly condemn the blast and want to give a message to the people behind it that this is not jihad but terrorism,” even as he called the blast to be “an attack on humanity and Bajaur”.
Demanding a probe into the incident, he recalled that this is not the first time that JUI-F has been attacked like this.
Apart from Hamdullah, several other leaders from across Pakistan joined their voices in condemning the attack and offered their condolences to the bereaved families.
A surge in terrorist attacks has been witnessed in Pakistan following the Taliban’s return to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August 2021.
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