Pakistan suicide blast on religious procession kills at least 52, injures dozens

At least 52 people were killed and more than 50 injured on Friday in a suicide attack on a religious gathering to mark the birthday of Prophet Mohammed in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, health officials and police said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, which comes amid a surge in attacks claimed by militant groups in the west of the country, raising the stakes for security forces ahead of national elections scheduled for January next year.

“The bomber detonated himself near the vehicle of the Deputy Superintendent of Police,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police Munir Ahmed, adding that the blast took place near a mosque where people were gathering for a procession to mark Mohammad’s birthday, a public holiday.

While the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday is accepted by most Islamic sects in Pakistan, certain denominations view it as an unwarranted innovation.

Every year mosques and government buildings are elaborately illuminated with strings of lights, and people march to mark the day.

“A procession of hundreds of people came out of the Madina mosque and as it reached Al Falah road a suicide bomber targeted it,” said Abdul Razzaq Sasoli, deputy commissioner of Mastung district.

“The attack on innocent people who came to participate in the procession … is a very heinous act,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

Casualties were being treated at hospitals in the nearby town of Mastung.

Jan Achakzai, Balochistan’s minister for information, appealed urgently for blood donors to help treat the wounded and announced a three-day mourning period.

The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan – made up of various hardline Sunni Islamist groups – has stepped up attacks against military and government targets since the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021, but denied it had carried out Friday’s attack.

Female Afghan judges are in hiding and living in fear of being found by Taliban

“The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) asserts no connection to this attack, and our stance on bombings in public spaces is unequivocal,” the group said in a statement.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s least populous province, in the southwest, is home to several militant groups fighting for independence or a greater share of the region’s mineral resources.

The regional chapter of the Islamic State group, known as Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), has also carried out attacks in the area in the past.

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Dozens killed by suicide bombing at Pakistan political gathering

Dozens killed by suicide bombing at Pakistan political gathering

In July, more than 40 people were killed in a suicide bombing in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at a religious political party’s gathering.

In 2006 a suicide bomber killed at least 50 people in the port city of Karachi after detonating a device at a gathering of Sunni Muslims.

No group claimed responsibility for that attack, although three men from the banned sectarian Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group were indicted.

Separately, Pakistan’s military said on Friday that four soldiers had been killed as they fought an attempt by TTP militants to infiltrate Balochistan from Afghanistan, with three terrorists “sent to hell”, it said in a statement.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse