At least 40 people were killed and dozens more wounded Sunday by a bomb blast at a political gathering of a radical Islamic party in northwest Pakistan, officials said, writes newarab.com.
The blast targeted the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) party when more than 400 members and supporters gathered under a tent in the town of Khar, near the border with Afghanistan.
“I can confirm that in the hospital we have 40 dead bodies, with 123 wounded that includes 17 patients in a serious condition,” Riaz Anwar, the health minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP.
Provincial governor Haji Ghulam Ali confirmed the death toll to AFP.
Images from the blast site circulating on social media showed bodies strewn around the scene, and volunteers helping blood-soaked victims to ambulances.
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.
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 a religious Islamic group that has supported successive governments and the military.
