At least 44 people have been killed in an explosion during a rally organized by an Islamist party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in north-west Bajaur district in Pakistan.
According to BBC report, a regional leader of the JUI-F, Maulana Ziaullah, was killed in the blast while more than 100 people were injured during the convention.
The report says hundreds of people attended the JUI-F workers’ convention on sunday in the town of Khar, in the Pakistani tribal district of Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan.
Police says they have found evidence suggesting the explosion was a possible suicide attack.
A rescue operation has been completed and all injured have been taken to hospital, officers said.
Officials have warned that the death toll may rise further, as 15 people are in a critical condition.
The reason behind the attack is not yet clear while security forces have cordoned off the area and an investigation into the explosion is taking place.
At the district hospital, some badly injured people have been waiting in the hallways, struggling to cope with the high number of casualties.
Authorities, therefore, declared a health emergency at the district hospital.
JUI-F is a major religious political party and forms part of the government coalition in Pakistan’s parliament.
The political gathering was an opportunity for the JUI-F to rally its support, ahead of an election expected to take place later this year.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned those responsible as being terrorists who have “targeted those who speak for Islam, the Quran and Pakistan” and said they would face “real punishment”.
“The terrorists are enemies of Pakistan, we will eliminate them from the face of existence,” the PM said in a statement.
While no-one has yet said they carried out the attack, the local branch of Islamic State group (IS) in Pakistan claimed to be behind several attacks this year in Bajaur and has previously claimed targeting JUI-F.
