- More than 70 people dead in a blast near Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Pakistan’s Sindh province
- A suicide bomber is said to have detonated explosives near the Sufi shrine
- Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif immediately condemned the attack
- Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack
Attacker Bypassed Security Check
The police in Pakistan's Sindh province released a video allegedly showing the Sehwan attacker bypassing a security check at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine last week.
Inspector General Police Sindh AD Khawaja was quoted by the Dawn on Sunday as saying during a press conference that the man shown in the CCTV footage was "99 percent" the suicide bomber.
He described the man as an Afghan national, saying that the 'attacker' saw the police officer at the gate and decided to go the other way.
The attacker is suspected of involvement in the Shikarpur and Jacobabad blasts, the IGP said, adding that the involvement of a man named Hafeez Brohi in the Sehwan attack could not be ruled out, as he had a terrorist network in Sindh.
Death Toll in Pakistan Shrine Bombing Rises to 72
More than 70 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan on Thursday, a police official said.
Senior police officer Shabbir Sethar told Reuters from a local hospital that the death toll was likely to rise. "At least 72 are dead and over 150 have been injured," Sethar said by telephone.
Islamic State Claims Suicide Attack
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in southern Pakistan, the group's affiliated news agency AMAQ reported. This week has seen a wave of bombings in Pakistan.
50 Dead in Suicide Attack in Sufi Shrine
A suicide bomber attacked a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan on Thursday, police said, with local media reporting at least 50 people had been killed and dozens more wounded in the latest in a wave of bombings this week.
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Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif immediately condemned the attack on Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in the town of Sehwan in Sindh province.
The past few days have been hard, and my heart is with the victims. But we can’t let these events divide us, or scare us. We must stand united in this struggle for the Pakistani identity, and universal humanity.Nawaz Sharif
A suicide bomber entered the shrine as crowds massed on Thursday, a statement from the Sindh police spokesman said.
Several other attacks this week, including a bomb that killed 13 people in the eastern city of Lahore, were claimed by the Pakistani Taliban's Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction.
Sharif in his statement decried the attack on the Sufi religious minority and vowed to fight Islamist militants who target the government and anyone who does not adhere to their strict interpretation of Sunni Islam.
(With inputs from Dawn, Geo TV, Reuters and ANI)
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