Bomb kills 43 at Pak shrine – IS claims responsibility for blast

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QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 12, (Agencies): At least 43 people died and scores of others were injured when a bomb exploded at a remote Sufishrine in southern Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Saturday, officials said. The blast hit a crowd of worshippers participating in a ceremony at the shrine of Sufisaint Shah Noorani in Khuzdar district, some 760 kilometres (472 miles) south of provincial capital Quetta. “At least 43 people have been killed and dozens of others wounded,” Sarfraz Bugti told a press conference in the southwestern port town of Gwadar, without providing a precise figure for those injured. A senior police official and a security official confirmed the death toll. Officials earlier said 25 people had been killed and at least 35 others wounded. Hakim Lasi, a rescue official with the Edhi Foundation, Pakistan’s largest welfare organisation, told Geo TV channel the charity had received reports via wireless radio saying that nearly 100 others were wounded, including women and children.

Dance
Local officials said worshippers were taking part in a devotional dance session, which is held daily before dusk, when the blast occurred. Rescuers were scrambling to reach the shrine, which is located in a remote, mountainous region with limited medical facilities. Authorities have dispatched ambulances and medical workers from Karachi, a three-hour drive from the blast site. Up to 600 people were at the shrine at the time of the attack, according to local official Tariq Mengal, who told Geo TV that many devotees travelled to the site from Karachi during weekends. Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack via Amaq, its affiliated news agency. “35 dead and 95 wounded Shiite visitors in a martyrdom operation attack by the Islamic State fighter that targeted a shrine in a city in Balochistan,” the agency said. The bombing follows the killing of Amjad Sabri, a renowned Sufisinger, by two gunmen in Karachi in June. Some observers have said that Sabri may have been assassinated because he was a high-profile Sufi.

Mystic
Sufism, a mystic Islamic order that believes in living saints, worships through music, and is viewed as heretical by some hardline groups including the Taleban. Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has oil and gas resources but is affl icted by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency. Local militants claimed to have worked with the Islamic State group to attack a police academy in Balochistan last month, killing 61 people in the deadliest assault on a security installation in Pakistan’s history.

In August, a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital claimed by the Islamic State group and a faction of the Pakistani Taleban killed 73 people. Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister for Baluchistan province, confirmed that the blast occurred with hundreds in attendance at the shrine of Sufisaint Shah Bilal Noorani. He said rescue efforts were ongoing. But Bugti talking to local Geo television refused to give any details as how many people were killed and wounded citing lack of cellular services in the affected area. “Our attention at present is on the rescue efforts. Once it is completed we will release the official death toll, which could be high.”

The blast comes ahead of the prime minister’s pre-planned trip to the province tomorrow, where he will see off the first Chinese shipping consignment to Africa from Gwadar port. Muhammad Azeem Mengal, a local police officer, said at least ten people were killed and 60 others wounded. He added that the nature of the blast was being investigated and that the death toll could dramatically increase. Abdul Hakim Lasi, an official with the Edhi Foundations rescue service that arrived at the scene, suggests more than 30 people may have been killed.

Lasi said over a dozen ambulances of the welfare network carried away the wounded from the shrine in the mountainous terrain of Khuzdar district, some 350 kilometers south of provincial capital Quetta. He said the area where blast occurred lacks health and communication services. He added that many were also wounded in a stampede after the blast. Worshippers were in the throes of their devotional “dhamal” dance when the blast occurred, he said. Anwarul Haq, the spokesman for the Baluchistan government, told local television stations that rescue efforts have been hindered because of the dark and narrow mountainous roads.

Haq said the wounded, including women and children, were being taken to hospitals in the neighboring Lasbela district. He said the critically wounded would be taken farther to Karachi for better medical care. He said emergency has been declared at hospitals to cater the possible high number of casualties. Last month IS claimed responsibility for an attack in which three Islamic militants stormed a police academy in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing 61 people, mostly cadets and trainees. Later, the banned sectarian Lashkar-e- Jhangvi group claimed joint responsibility. Lashker-e-Jhangvi, mostly involved in attacks on the minority Shiite sect, has previously taken credit for several attacks in Baluchistan.

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