Islamabad, Sept. 29, (dpa/GNA) – At least 31 people were killed in south-western Pakistan on Friday when a suicide bomber targeted a procession to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, police said.
The bombing targeted people gathering outside a mosque in the town of Mastung in the volatile province of Balochistan, police officer Sikandar Ahmed told dpa.
A senior police officer was among the dead, another police officer Azam Khan said.
The bombing occurred when the people from the Barelvi sect of Islam were taking part in a procession, the usual way to celebrate the occasion.
The Barelvi movement, which has strong influences from Sufism, is a popular sect in Pakistan, and people following it are often targeted by the extremist Islamic State group.
Injured people were being treated at the local hospital, doctor Saeed Ahmed said, fearing the death toll might go up as some of the injured people were in a critical condition.
A state of emergency has been declared at hospitals, and the security forces have cordoned off the area.
Balochistan’s Information Minister Jan Achakzai called upon the people to donate blood to the critically injured victims.
Mastung, a town near the provincial capital city of Quetta, has been the hub of sectarian Sunni militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).
The LeJ group has long been associated with al-Qaeda, providing the group once led by Osama bin Laden with the manpower before switching to Islamic State recently.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest bombing, but the Pakistani Taliban said in a statement that they were not behind it.
The Islamic State in Khurasan (ISIK), a local offshoot of the group, was the likely perpetrator, police officer Javed Lehri said.
A politician from a leading Islamic party in Pakistan survived a bombing on his car in Mastung earlier this month.
GNA