KHAR, PAKISTAN (AP) – The death toll from a massive suicide bombing that targeted an election rally for a pro-Taleban cleric rose to 54 yesterday, as Pakistan held funerals and the government vowed to hunt down those behind the attack.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing, which also wounded nearly 200 people. Police said their initial investigation suggested that the extremist group’s regional affiliate could be responsible.
The victims were attending a rally organised by the Jamiat Ulema party, headed by hard-line cleric and politician Fazlur Rehman. He did not attend the rally, held under a large tent close to a market in Bajur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.
Rehman, who has long supported Afghanistan’s Taleban government, escaped at least two known bomb attacks in 2011 and 2014, when bombings damaged his car at rallies.
Victims of the bombing were buried in Bajur yesterday.
