Pakistan suicide bombing near a mosque in Balochistan kills more than 50

Islamabad, Pakistan — A religious gathering to celebrate the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad turned deadly Friday in Pakistan when a suicide bomber exploded a powerful device near a mosque, killing at least 52 people and leaving some 70 more injured in an attack targeting worshippers and police. Another attack elsewhere in the country, targeting another mosque, left at least 5 people dead.

Local officials said the blast in the Mastung district of Pakistan’s southwest Baluchistan province, which has faced a decades-long nationalist rebellion as well as multiple attacks by the ISIS faction in the region, had targeted the procession as worshipers left the mosque.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Friday’s explosion but the Pakistani Taliban, a collection of religious extremist sub-groups that’s separate from the Afghan Taliban but closely allied with the group that retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021, denied responsibility.

ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, a branch of the terror group that operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan, is also active in the province and has claimed previous deadly attacks in Baluchistan and elsewhere.  

The Baluch nationalists who have fought for years for independence in the oil-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran typically target security officials rather than civilians.

The video aired by Pakistani TV stations and posted on social media showed bloodied victims of the explosion and body parts strewn across the blast site

Dr Saeed Mirwani, chief executive of the local Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Raisani Memorial Hospital, told reporters that dozens of casualties were being treated at the facility. At the same time, more than 20 more seriously injured victims were sent to the provincial capital of Quetta for more advanced treatment.

“The process of moving bodies and injured persons is underway,” the hospital CEO said.

Hours after the suicide blast in Baluchistan province, at least one more explosion ripped through a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which also borders Afghanistan, killing at least five people, a regional official said. The mosque’s roof collapsed in the blast, leaving about 30 to 40 people buried under rubble.

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