Islamic State group claims duty for Pakistan bombing that killed 54

By Associated Press: An Afghan department of Islamic State on Monday claimed duty for a suicide bombing in Pakistan that killed at the least 54 individuals at a pro-Taliban social gathering’s election rally, in one of many area’s worst assaults in recent times.

Islamic State in Khorasan Province made the declare in an announcement posted on its Amaq web site. It stated the attacker detonated an explosive vest, and that the bombing within the northwestern city of Bajaur was a part of the group’s persevering with struggle towards types of democracy it deems to be towards Islam.

Hours earlier, a whole bunch of mourners in Bajaur carried caskets draped in colourful fabric to burial websites following yesterday’s assault on the election rally for the Jamiat Ulema Islam social gathering. Officials stated Sunday’s bombing killed 54 individuals, together with at the least 5 kids, and wounded almost 200.

The assault appeared to mirror divisions between Islamist teams, which have a powerful presence within the district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. The Jamiat Ulema Islam social gathering has ties to the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.

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At least 1,000 individuals had been crowded right into a tent close to a marketplace for the rally forward of fall elections, in line with police.

“People were chanting God is Great as the leaders arrived,” stated Khan Mohammad, an area resident who stated he was standing outdoors the tent, “and that was when I heard the deafening sound of the bomb.”

Mohammad stated he heard individuals crying for assist, and minutes later ambulances arrived and started taking the wounded away.

Police had prompt of their preliminary investigation that Islamic State in Khorasan Province was a suspect. The group relies in neighboring Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and is a rival of the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida.

Pakistan safety analyst Mahmood Shah additionally beforehand had stated that breakaway factions of the Pakistani Taliban may very well be potential suspects, although the group distanced itself from the assault.

The Pakistani navy spent years preventing the Pakistani Taliban, also referred to as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, in Bajur earlier than declaring the district away from militants in 2016. But the Jamiat Ulema Islam social gathering, headed by hard-line cleric and politician Fazlur Rehman, has remained a potent political pressure.

On Monday, police recorded statements from among the wounded at a hospital in Khar, the district’s principal city.

Female family and youngsters wailed and beat their chests at household properties Monday because the useless had been taken for funerals, following native customs. Hundreds of males adopted the caskets to mosques and open areas for particular funeral prayers after which into the hills for burial.

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