{"id":7488,"date":"2023-07-30T18:47:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T17:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/44-dead-over-100-injured-in-suicide-blast-at-pak-political-meet\/%e0%a4%8f%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%82%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%bf%e0%a4%b5\/"},"modified":"2023-07-30T18:47:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T17:47:34","slug":"44-dead-over-100-injured-in-suicide-blast-at-pak-political-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/?p=7488","title":{"rendered":"44 Dead, Over 100 Injured In Suicide Blast At Pak Political Meet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-07\/tfjbii5o_pakistan-blast-reuters_625x300_30_July_23.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" id=\"ins_storybody\"><!-- \n\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" class=\"sp-cn ins_storybody\" id=\"ins_storybody\">--><\/p>\n<div class=\"ins_instory_dv\"><span itemprop=\"video\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/VideoObject\"><meta itemprop=\"headline\" content=\"39 Dead, 123 Injured As Bomber Detonates Himself At Pak Political Meeting\"\/><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"39 Dead, 123 Injured As Bomber Detonates Himself At Pak Political Meeting\"\/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"39 Dead, 123 Injured As Bomber Detonates Himself At Pak Political Meeting\"\/><meta itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-07\/tfjbii5o_pakistan-blast-reuters_625x300_30_July_23.jpg\"\/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2023-07-30T22:34:59+05:30\"\/><meta itemprop=\"embedUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/video\/embed-player\/?id=714575&amp;category=embed&amp;autostart=1&amp;pWidth=650&amp;pHeight=403&amp;embed_type=story&amp;mute=1&amp;autostart=1&amp;mutestart=true&amp;ctitle=1&amp;miniplayer=1&amp;cache=2022\"\/><meta itemprop=\"ContentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/ndtvod.pc.cdn.bitgravity.com\/23372\/ndtv\/30072023_n_BombBlastInPakistan_110840_62258_320.mp4\"\/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"T0M50S\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"videoembed\" class=\"videembedload\" src=\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-07\/tfjbii5o_pakistan-blast-reuters_625x300_30_July_23.jpg?im=FeatureCrop,algorithm=dnn,width=650,height=400\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/video\/embed-player\/?id=714575&amp;category=embed&amp;autostart=1&amp;pWidth=650&amp;pHeight=403&amp;embed_type=story&amp;mute=1&amp;autostart=1&amp;mutestart=true&amp;ctitle=1&amp;miniplayer=1&amp;cache=2022\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:100%; height:403px; padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left:0px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"ins_instory_dv_caption sp_b\">A senior leader was due to address the ceremony, the police said<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b class=\"place_cont\">Peshawar: <\/b><\/p>\n<p>At least 44 people were killed and dozens more wounded Sunday by a suicide bombing at a political gathering of a leading Islamic party in northwest Pakistan, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The blast targeted the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) party &#8212; a government coalition partner led by an influential firebrand cleric &#8212; as hundreds of supporters congregated under a canopy in the town of Khar, near the Afghan border.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The tent had collapsed on one side, trapping people who were desperately attempting to escape,&#8221; said Abdullah Khan, who tried to help the victims.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was utter confusion, with human flesh, limbs, and body parts scattered throughout the area, alongside lifeless bodies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sabeeh Ullah, a 24-year-old party supporter who had his arm fractured by the blast, said the scale of injuries was horrifying.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I found myself lying next to someone who had lost their limbs. The air was filled with the smell of human flesh,&#8221; he told AFP by phone.<\/p>\n<p>As the toll kept rising, Riaz Anwar &#8212; the health minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province &#8212; told AFP late Sunday that 44 people had been confirmed killed and over 100 wounded.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a suicide attack, with the bomber detonating himself in close proximity to the stage,&#8221; he told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>Images from the blast site circulating on social media showed bodies strewn around the scene, and volunteers helping blood-soaked victims to ambulances.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Local ISIS Active<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The jihadist group accuses JUI-F of hypocrisy for being an Islamic group while supporting hostile governments and the military.<\/p>\n<p>The party&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>With the ability to mobilise tens of thousands of madrassa students, his party never musters enough support for power on its own but is usually a key player in any coalition.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in terrorist attacks since the Afghan Taliban surged back to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan&#8217;s home-grown Taliban group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has largely directed its campaign against security officials, including police officers.<\/p>\n<p>In January, a suicide bomber linked to Pakistan&#8217;s Taliban blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers.<\/p>\n<p>The terrorist assaults have been focused in regions abutting Afghanistan, and Islamabad alleges some are being planned on Afghan soil &#8212; a charge Kabul denies.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan was once plagued by almost daily bombings, but a major military clearance operation in the former tribal areas starting in 2014 largely restored order.<\/p>\n<p>The seven remote districts that border Afghanistan, of which Bajaur is one, were later brought under the control of Pakistani authorities after the passage of legislation in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts say terrorists in the former tribal areas have become emboldened since the return of the Afghan Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>One security analyst suggested Sunday&#8217;s attack was more likely linked to the election rather than having a sectarian motive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is part of terrorism violence that seems to be ramping up in Pakistan ahead of elections to create a sense of instability that could eventually lead to a delay in the elections,&#8221; said Imtiaz Gul, executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies.<\/p>\n<p>Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack in a statement, adding Kabul &#8220;shares its deepest condolences with the affected families&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><i>(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a press release)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/world-news\/39-killed-in-bomb-blast-at-political-gathering-in-pakistans-khyber-pakhtunkhwa-police-4253565\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] A senior leader was due to address the ceremony, the police said Peshawar: At least 44 people were killed and dozens more wounded 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 &#8212; a government coalition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}