At least 39 killed in Pakistan after explosion at political rally

Islamabad: Dozens of people were killed after a bomb went off at a political rally in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday. Rescue officials confirmed at least 39 people were killed in the town of Khar in Bajaur district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.

“We fear the death toll will increase,” Rescue Department spokesperson Bilal Faizi said.

Police authorities said they believe the explosion was the result of a suicide bombing. Another 150 people were taken to hospital with injuries.

Images of the incident showed bodies strewn around the scene, and volunteers carrying blood-soaked victims to ambulances.

“There was all dust and smoke around and I was under the some injured people from where I hardly (could stand) up but only to see chaos and some scattered limbs,” one witness told the Associated Press. The official said that the governor has advised all the authorities concerned to provide the best available treatment to the wounded and, if needed, they should arrange for airlifting them to other cities, including Peshawar and the capital Islamabad.

Nasir Mehmood Satti, an official at the Regional Police Office of Malakand division, told the media that the attack took place when a convention of political workers of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was being held near Shanday Mor area on the Munda Khar road of Bajaur.
The police officer said soon after the blast, police, security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site, started a rescue operation, and shifted bodies and the injured to nearby hospitals.

An eyewitness Akbar, who attended the event, told local media that he heard a big blast and saw bodies, the injured and blood.

“I joined other locals to shift bodies and the injured to the hospital. This is a great cruelty on innocent people,” said Akbar, while appealing to the public to rush to the hospital for blood donations.

According to the police, it was a bomb blast, and the bomb disposal squad is working to find out whether it was conducted with a planted device or it was a suicide attack.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack and expressed grief over the losses of lives.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast yet.