Dozens killed in blast at Pakistan political convention

Pakistani officials said that dozens of civilians were killed on Sunday when a bomb went off during a political convention in the northwest region of the country. 

Officials said that the incident happened during a political rally for hardline cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman, one of the leaders of the Jamiat Ulema Islam political party (JUI), in a hall close to a market outside the Bajur district’s capital. 

Provincial information minister Feroz Jamal told the Associated Press that 44 people were killed in the bombing and 200 others were wounded. 

Party officials were announcing the arrival of its leader, Abdul Rasheed, when the bomb went off. Officials said Rehman was not at the rally, but noted that organizers of the event set up tents to accommodate many of his supporters. 

Provincial police said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting.

“There was dust and smoke around, and I was under some injured people from where I could hardly stand up, only to see chaos and some scattered limbs,” Adam Khan, who suffered injuries during the blast, said. 

The bomb attack happened near the country’s border with Afghanistan. The border used to be a strong hold for the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), a close ally of the Afghanistan government, but lost their control of the region after being pushed out by the Pakistani army. 

In a statement to the newswire, TTP said that the purpose of the bombing was aimed to set Islamists against each other. 

Rasheed, who serves as a regional chief for JUI, said that the attack was an attempt to remove his party from the parliamentary elections later in November, saying that these tactics will not work. 

“Many of our fellows lost their lives and many more wounded in this incident. I will ask the federal and provincial administrations to fully investigate this incident and provide due compensation and medical facilities to the affected ones,” Rasheed said.

The bombing comes as TTP ended their cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government last November, a year after the Taliban’s eventual takeover of Afghanistan. 

The bombing was also one of the four worst attacks to happen in the Northwest region of the country. Earlier this year, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in the city of Peshawar and next month saw more than 100 people, mostly local policeman, die in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing the city’s police headquarters. 

Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Arif Alvi both condemned the attack and asked officials to provide assistance to those affected by the incident. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.