In Pakistan blast, 10 kg explosives used, eyewitness says ‘saw blood everywhere’

A suicide bomber in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province blew himself up during a political rally organised by an Islamist party, killing at least 44 people and injuring 200 others.

The blast targeted the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) party — a government coalition partner led by an influential firebrand cleric.

KP Inspector General of Police Akhtar Hayat Khan told The Dawn 10 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast and explosive materials were collected from the site.

Meanwhile, an eyewitness who was present at the rally told The Dawn that he “saw blood everywhere and heard people screaming”.

Here are the top developments of the story:
The blast occurred around 4 pm, when the meeting organised by Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was underway in Khar in Bajaur district. An emergency has been declared in the hospitals of Bajaur and adjoining areas where most of the injured were taken, district police officer Nazir Khan told news agency Reuters. The critically injured were transported from Bajaur to hospitals in the provincial capital Peshawar by military helicopters.

Recalling the horror, 45-year-old Adam Khan, who was knocked to the ground by the blast, told AP, “There was dust and smoke around, and I was under some injured people from where I could hardly stand up, only to see chaos and some scattered limbs.”

Another witness told The Dawn, “We were listening to a bayan [sermon] when a powerful explosion knocked me unconscious. When I regained consciousness, there was blood everywhere. People were screaming and even shots were fired.”

Hours after the blast, several videos surfaced online showing the moment of the explosion. In one of the videos, a large gathering can be purportedly seen listing to an address by a leader when the explosion occurred.’Hazrat Maulana Abdul Rashid Sahab… Zindabad, Zindabad!’, the crowd was chanting slogans in support of their leader when the blast occurred, a video showed.

Police said the suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting, reported AP. It said initial investigations suggested the Islamic State group — which operates in Afghanistan and is an enemy of the Afghan Taliban — could be behind the attack, and officers were still investigating.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Arif Alvi condemned the attack and asked officials to provide all possible assistance to the wounded and the bereaved families.The bombing was one of the four worst attacks in the northwest since 2014, when 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar.