At least 44 people were killed and dozens wounded on Sunday by a suicide bombing at a political gathering of a leading Islamic party in northwest Pakistan, officials said.
The blast targeted the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) party, a government coalition partner led by an influential firebrand cleric, as hundreds of supporters congregated under a canopy in the town of Khar, near the Afghan border, according to a report in NDTV.
“The tent had collapsed on one side, trapping people who were desperately attempting to escape,” said Abdullah Khan, who tried to help the victims. “There was utter confusion, with human flesh, limbs, and body parts scattered throughout the area, alongside lifeless bodies.”
Sabeeh Ullah, a 24-year-old party supporter who had his arm fractured by the blast, said the scale of injuries was horrifying.
“I found myself lying next to someone who had lost their limbs. The air was filled with the smell of human flesh,” he said over phone.
As the toll kept rising, Riaz Anwar, the health minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told said late on Sunday that 44 people had been confirmed killed and more than 100 wounded.
“It was a suicide attack, with the bomber detonating himself in close proximity to the stage,” he said, according to the report.
Images from the blast site circulating on social media showed bodies strewn around the scene and volunteers helping blood-soaked victims to ambulances.
Pakistan's national assembly is due to dissolve in the next few weeks ahead of elections expected in October or November, and political parties are already preparing to campaign.
The blast coincides with a visit to the country by a senior delegation of Chinese officials, including Vice Premier He Lifeng, who arrived in the capital Sunday evening.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the local chapter of the Islamic State (IS) group has recently carried out attacks against JUI-F, the NDTV report said.
Last year, IS said it was behind violent attacks against religious scholars affiliated with the party, which has a huge network of mosques and madrassas in the north and west of the country.
The jihadist group accuses JUI-F of hypocrisy for being an Islamic group while supporting hostile governments and the military.
The party's leader, cleric Fazlur Rehman, started political life as a firebrand Islamist hardliner but has softened his public image over the years in a bid to forge alliances with secular parties on the left and right of the spectrum.
Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in terrorist attacks since the Afghan Taliban surged back to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.
Pakistan's home-grown Taliban group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has largely directed its campaign against security officials, including police officers.
In January, a suicide bomber linked to Pakistan's Taliban blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers.
The terrorist assaults have been focused in regions abutting Afghanistan, and Islamabad alleges some are being planned on Afghan soil, a charge Kabul denies.
