The number of fatalities after a suicide attack this Friday in a mosque in the province of Balochistanin southern Pakistan, rose to 52 and the injured to more than 50.
“The death toll has reached 52 and there are more than 50 injured,” said Mohammad Javed Lehri, police station officer in the town of Mastung, in Balochistan, where the attack took place.
Among the dead was found “a tall Police officer on duty to provide protection to the religious procession,” the agent added.
The attack occurred in front of a mosque in the middle of the religious festival Eid-e-Miladun Nabi, an auspicious event in which Muslims honor the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, another Mastung police official, Zubair Baloch, told EFE. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Attacks in Pakistan
This is the second explosion to occur in Mustang this month. On September 14, eleven people, including the religious party leader Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), Hafiz Hamdullah, were injured due to an explosion near the vehicle in which they were traveling on the Quetta-Karachi highway.
At the end of last July, this political group suffered a suicide attack during a rally, which caused at least 63 deaths and 120 injuries.and which was claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State of Khorasan, a local branch of the terrorist group.
After learning what happened, the acting Minister of the Interior of Pakistan, Sarfraz Bugti, condemned on the social network Mastung“and assured that the government will use all available resources to guarantee care for the victims and improve security in the country. “We are committed to a policy of zero tolerance against terrorists,” Bugti stated.
For his part, the interim head of the Government of Balochistan, Mir Ali Mardan Domki, announced three days of mourning to express solidarity with the families of the deceasedas reported in X by the acting provincial Minister of Information Jan Achakzai.
Violence in Pakistan has increased since the coming to power of the Afghan Taliban in Kabul in August 2021, which reactivated the attacks of their Pakistani ideological brothers, especially in the border provinces with Afghanistan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
This last province is also a common scene of violence, with the presence of armed groups, Taliban factions and jihadist groups.
The country witnessed 271 militant attacks during the first half of the year, in which 389 people were killed and another 656 injured, according to a report published in early July by the Pakistan Institute of Conflict and Security Studies.
A significant increase in the numbers compared to the same period in 2022, when PAkistan suffered 151 attacks that caused 293 deaths and 487 injuries.
EFE
More news
#Attack #Pakistan #leaves #dead #injured #Government #declared #days #mourning