No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Islamic State group operates across the border in Afghanistan.
KHAR, Pakistan — A powerful bomb ripped through a rally held by supporters of a hard-line cleric and political leader in the country’s northwestern Bajur District that borders Afghanistan on Sunday, police and health officials said. At least 55 people were killed and 135 were wounded in what one official said was a suicide attack.
Senior police officer Nazir Khan told NBC News that the religious political party Jamiat Ulema Islam, run by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, had organized a workers’ convention in the town of Khar, headquarters of the Bajur District, a former tribal area, on Sunday, where the explosion took place.
While Khan said earlier there was “no information about the nature of the blast,” Jalil Jan, a spokesperson for the political party, said it was a suicide attack.
Azam Khan, head of the emergency room at Khar’s main hospital, said previously that 35 bodies had been brought to the hospital, and while some had been released to relatives the number of wounded was more than 100, as those who had earlier been taken to nearby small clinics were later transferred to the main government hospital.
The number of dead and injured ticked up throughout the day. Jan, the party spokesperson, told NBC News the death toll had risen to 55, and that some of the 135 injuries were critical.
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Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/bomb-political-rally-northwest-pakistan-kills-least-35-people-wounds-1-rcna97141
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