Bombing in Pakistan Kills at Least 40

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A bombing of a gathering of a political party killed at least 40 people Sunday, officials said, as Pakistan faces a renewed wave of terrorism ahead of elections due this year.

The bombing targeted a religious political party, Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema Islam party, which avows a hard-line version of Islam, but not extreme enough for jihadists who view democracy as un-Islamic. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Local video footage showed a fireball erupting with a big blast, as party supporters assembled in a large tent erected for the meeting to hear speeches from some of the party’s more senior leaders. Afterward, bloody corpses and dismembered body parts lay scattered on the ground, the video showed.

Police said that a suicide bomber carried out the attack, which took place in the northwest part of the country close to the Afghan border, adding that the death toll is likely to rise as many of the injured were in critical condition. Some of the most badly wounded were taken by military helicopter to a hospital in the provincial capital, Peshawar. The provincial administration said that 200 were injured, in addition to more than 40 killed.

“It is clear from the attack that the enemy is against the democratic system in Pakistan,” said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. “We will never let the aims of such cowardly attacks succeed.”

The party attacked is a part of the coalition government led by Sharif. Elections are due by the first half of November at the latest, under the constitution.

Pakistan endured a bloody election in 2013, when terrorism was a far bigger menace. Attacks had subsequently declined as military operations took place inside Pakistan, until the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 2021.

Islamabad says that militants based in Afghanistan carry out attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban government in Afghanistan deny that Pakistani militants are present there.

The Taliban government in Kabul condemned the bombing, adding that “such heinous acts are not justifiable in any religion or sect.”

Sunday’s explosion was the most deadly since a mosque was targeted in January. Also in the northwest of the country, the blast killed some 80 people, mostly police officers worshiping there.

The Pakistani Taliban, a jihadist movement inspired by the Afghan group, is behind most of the attacks. The Pakistani military held unsuccessful peace talks with the group in 2021 and 2022, but that allowed some of the militants to move back into Pakistan.

Also active is the local branch of the Islamic State militant group, which operates in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Abdul Basit, senior associate fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore, said the attack had the hallmarks of Islamic State, which had gone after religious political parties in Pakistan previously. The Pakistani Taliban is focused now on attacking military and police personnel, he said.

“Pakistan has no good options to tackle this threat,” said Basit. “There isn’t the public support or money for large scale counter terrorism operations inside the country. And any airstrikes and covert assassinations they carry out in Afghanistan create more problems.”

The Taliban administration in Kabul insists that it won’t allow the country’s territory to be used against other nations, and has reacted strongly against any perceived encroachment on its soil by Pakistan and other neighbors.

Write to Saeed Shah at [email protected]