OAN’s Abril Elfi
4:36 PM – Monday, July 31, 2023
An Islamic State group has taken responsibility for a suicide bombing in Pakistan that killed at least 54 people at a pro-Taliban party’s election rally.
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On Monday, an Afghan branch of the Islamic State claimed account of the bombing at the rally for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), where more than 1,000 people were present. As funerals are being held, the current death toll is currently at 54. The number of victims is believed to rise.
The bomb attack that happened on Sunday took place in the outskirts of Khar in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border. The bombing left nearly 200 people wounded and 54 dead, including at least five children and a few government officials.
Authorities stated that the suicide bomber set off explosives in his vest in an area were roughly 400 people were waiting for speeches to began. The man was reportedly close to the stage where a few of the senior party leaders were sitting.
Mumtaz, a 46-year-old JUI-F worker, stated chaos broke out when the bomb went off.
“All of a sudden as I was about to sit again, a massive sound went off, and it was a huge blast that blinded me,” she said. “I didn’t understand for a moment what had happened. There was a flood of people running, and it was every man for himself. Everyone was just trying to save themselves and get out of that space.”
According to the press, this attack was one of the four worst attacks in northwestern Pakistan. Dozens of people had to be taken in helicopters to get treated in other provinces and the death toll continues to rise as people continue to pass away in the hospital.
The last bomb attack that occurred in this region was in January where 74 people were killed in a bombing. Additionally, the largest attack that happened in northwestern Pakistan was in 2014. During this bombing, 147 people, who were mostly children, were killed in an attack on an army-run school in Peshawar.
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