31-7-2023 (ISLAMABAD) Pakistan police are investigating a suicide blast that killed at least 44 people at a political gathering of the Islamist party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) in the town of Khar in the northwestern Bajaur district. The JUI-F is a key government coalition partner led by a firebrand cleric, and around 400 members were waiting for speeches to begin when the attacker detonated his vest near the front stage. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, who operate in the area, have denied being behind it. The local chapter of the Islamic State group, who have targeted JUI-F rallies and leaders in the past, have not yet commented on the attack. The blast has raised fears of violence during Pakistan’s upcoming national elections, scheduled to be held by mid-November or earlier.
The attack occurred just 45km from the Afghan border, in an area where militancy has been rising since the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021. The blast site was covered with blood-stained shoes and prayer caps, along with ball bearings and steel bolts from the suicide vest. Thousands of mourners attended the first funeral ceremonies, including for two young cousins aged 16 and 17.
Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in militant attacks since the Afghan Taliban surged back to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021. The militant assaults have been focused in regions abutting Afghanistan, and Islamabad alleges some are being planned on Afghan soil – a charge that Kabul denies. Pakistan was once plagued by almost daily bombings, but a major military clearance operation launched in 2014 in northwestern areas that were formerly Pakistani Taliban strongholds largely restored order. The seven remote former tribal districts that border Afghanistan, of which Bajaur is one, were later brought into the legal and administrative mainstream after the passage of legislation in 2018. Analysts say militants in the former tribal areas have become emboldened since the return of the Afghan Taliban.
The blast coincides with a visit to the country by a senior delegation of Chinese officials, including Vice Premier He Lifeng, who arrived in the capital Sunday evening. The JUI-F’s leader, cleric Fazl-ur-Rehman, has in the past operated as a facilitator for talks between the government and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a rival of the Islamic State group. Last year, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for attacks against religious scholars affiliated with JUI-F, which has a huge network of mosques and schools in the north and west of the country.
