The death toll from a bomb blast at a Sufi shrine in southwest Pakistan on Saturday has risen to 50 people with more than 100 wounded, officials said.
The Islamic State (IS) group later claimed responsibility for the suicide attack at the shrine of Sufi saint Shah Bilal Noorani in the southwestern Balochistan Province, Pakistan.
Balochistan Province Ministry of the Interior official Abdur Rasool said rescuers were transporting the wounded to hospitals and the dead to local morgues, but were struggling in the difficult mountainous terrain, about 350km south of the provincial capital, Quetta.
The blast targeted worshipers as they were in the throes of their devotional Dhamal dance, and the courtyard at the time was packed with families, women and children.
The Islamic State group’s statement on the IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency said the suicide attack had targeted Shiites. The shrine is frequented by both Pakistan’s Sunni Muslim majority and Shiite minority. The IS considers all Shiite Muslims heretics.
The blast comes ahead of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s planned trip to the province tomorrow, where he is to see off the first Chinese shipping consignment to Africa from Gwadar Port.
Balochistan Minister of the Interior Sarfaraz Bugti, citing a lack of cellular services in the affected area, said the situation would be much clearer in the morning.
He said more than 500 people were in the courtyard of the shrine when the blast happened.
Abdul Hakim Lasi, an official with the Edhi Foundations rescue service, said many of the injured were wounded in a panicked stampede after the blast.
One witness, who was not identified by name, told the GEO television channel that a “big bang” took place in the midst of the Dhamal dance in the shrine’s courtyard.
“I don’t know how I escaped unhurt,” she said. “It was like a hell all around.”
A doctor at an area hospital told a local television station that the number of wounded being brought in had overwhelmed the hospital’s capacity.
“We don’t have sufficient space so several people were treated outside on the ground,” the doctor said adding that, “several wounded people have lost limbs.”
A Pakistani military statement said that four army medical teams and 45 army ambulances had been dispatched to the scene to assist.
Last month the IS claimed responsibility for an attack in which three militants stormed a police academy in Quetta, Pakistan, killing 61 people, mostly cadets and trainees.
Later, banned sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed joint responsibility.
For more than a decade, Balochistan Province has been the scene of a low-intensity insurgency by nationalist and separatist groups demanding a bigger share of regional resources.
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