Dozens killed in bomb blast at political rally in northwest Pakistan | News

The blast in the country’s Bajur district killed at least 40 people and wounded more than 100, according to local officials.

At least 40 people have been killed after a powerful bomb ripped through a political rally in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.

The blast took place on Sunday at a gathering of the conservative Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party on the outskirts of Khar in Pakistan’s northwestern Bajur district, which borders Afghanistan.

District police officer Nazir Khan said 40 people were killed and more than 130 injured. Riaz Anwar, the health minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said 44 people had been confirmed killed and over 100 wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but local authorities said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomb.

Khan said the JUI-F’s workers’ convention was under way when the explosion took place.

Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, the inspector-general of police for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said senior party leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman was not at the event when the explosion took place.

JUI-F is part of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance, a political coalition affiliated with the government in which Rehman plays a leading role.

‘Deep sorrow’

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the incident and extended his condolences to the families of the victims, including that of JUI-F leader Ziaullah Jan, who was confirmed killed in the attack, Radio Pakistan reported.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari “expressed deep sorrow over the loss of precious lives”, his Pakistan Peoples Party said in a statement.

It added that “the terrorists, their facilitators and planners need to be eliminated so that peace is established in the country”.

Interior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb wrote on social media that the “religion of terrorists is only terrorism”.

“Ending terrorism is very important for the survival and integrity of Pakistan,” she wrote.

The armed group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistan Taliban and linked to the Taliban in Afghanistan, distanced itself from the attack, which its spokesman condemned.

The TTP has been waging a rebellion against the state of Pakistan for more than a decade, demanding the imposition of Islamic law, the release of key members arrested by the government and a reversal of the merger of Pakistan’s tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, also condemned the recent bombing. “Such crimes cannot be justified in any way,” he said in a message on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Suspicions also fell on ISIL (ISIS), which has been active in neighbouring Afghanistan after the fall of President Ashraf Ghani’s government and which has members who are known to cross the porous mountainous border and hide in the Peshawar area.

Nizam Salarzai, journalist at the independent news outlet The Khorasan Diary, said the JUI-F has been under attack by ISIL in the past two years.

“They have a problem with the Afghan Taliban as well and anyone who approves of Taliban sentiments,”  Salarzai told Al Jazeera.

If ISIL were to emerge as the group responsible for the attack, he added, “it may mean that the Pakistani state will have to fight on multiple fronts” to prevent similar attacks in the future.