At least 40 people were killed and over 130 injured when a suicide bomber set off explosives at a political rally in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, police said.
The blast took place at a gathering of the conservative Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party in the former tribal area of Bajaur, which borders Afghanistan. The party is led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, considered to be a pro-Taliban cleric whose party is known for its links to hardline political Islam.
The bombing came hours before the arrival of Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng in Islamabad, where he was to participate in an event to mark a decade of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, a sprawling package under which Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan.
In recent months, China has helped Pakistan avoid a default on sovereign payments. However, some Chinese nationals have also been targeted by militants in northwestern Pakistan and elsewhere.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group operates across the border in Afghanistan.
The provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber who got into the venue despite security provided by party volunteers.
Local party chief among those killed
Maulana Ziaullah, the local chief of Rehman’s party, was among the dead. Senator Abdur Rasheed and former lawmaker Maulana Jamaluddin were also on the stage but escaped unhurt. Party officials said Rehman was not at the rally.
An emergency was declared in the hospitals of Bajaur and adjoining areas where most of the injured were taken, said district police officer Nazir Khan. The critically injured were transported from Bajaur to hospitals in the provincial capital Peshawar by military helicopters.
“The JUI-F organized a workers convention in Khar town of Bajaur in which 40 people lost their lives and more than 130 were injured,” Khan said.
Pakistan has seen a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants since last year when a ceasefire between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamabad broke down.
However, most of the recent attacks have been on security forces and installations, rather than political gatherings.
The TTP pledges allegiance to, but is not directly a part of, the Taliban in western neighbour Afghanistan. Pakistan’s security forces say the TTP have sanctuaries in Afghanistan, which the Taliban run-administration there denies.
Afghanistan’s administration condemned the explosion in a statement by their spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.
The TTP are not the only militant group to carry out attacks in the area, which has also been hit by a local chapter of the Islamic State.
The targeted party, the JUI-F, is a major ally of the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Rasheed, the regional chief of the party, said the attack was an attempt to remove JUI-F from the field before parliamentary elections in November but he said such tactics will not work.
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