mosque blast

31 killed, 169 injured in Islamabad mosque blast

At least 31 people were killed and 169 others injured in an explosion at a Shia mosque in the Tarlai Kalan area of Islamabad during Friday prayers, officials said. Islamabad’s deputy commissioner Irfan Memon confirmed the casualty figures, adding that emergency measures have been imposed at major hospitals in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Security forces cordoned off the site as investigators gathered evidence from the scene. Police indicated that the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated explosives after being stopped at the mosque entrance. Witnesses reported hearing gunfire as two attackers approached the mosque, with a brief exchange between mosque guards and the assailants before the explosion. One attacker was reportedly hit by gunfire before detonating his vest. Eyewitnesses described chaos at the scene, with injured worshippers lying across the mosque compound and locals rushing victims to hospitals. Mosque caretaker Syed Ashfaq said, “Bodies were lying everywhere, some missing arms or legs. We transported the most critically injured in our own vehicles.” The Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, condemned the attack, calling it “a crime against humanity” and expressing solidarity with the victims’ families. In response to the attack, 25 ambulances were dispatched to Islamabad, and all hospitals across Rawalpindi District were placed on high alert, with specialist surgical teams on standby, according to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif. The blast occurred amid ongoing discussions of a potential military operation in Pakistan’s Tirah Valley along the Afghan border, though the government has not officially confirmed the operation. Relations with the Afghan Taliban have been tense, and Pakistan recently reported returning over one million Afghan nationals across the border in the past year. Last year saw a sharp rise in militant-related deaths across Pakistan, with militants accounting for more than half of the fatalities, according to an independent think tank report. The attack in Islamabad follows a series of high-profile militant incidents, including a suicide attack in November last year at district courts that killed 12 people, and coordinated assaults in Balochistan in which security forces said they killed more than 200 militants. Authorities are continuing the investigation into the cause and perpetrators of Friday’s blast. With inputs from BBC

6 days ago

Afghan mosque blast kills 18, including pro-Taliban cleric

An explosion tore through a crowded mosque in western Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 18 people. including a prominent cleric close to the Taliban, Taliban officials and a local medic said. At least 21 people were hurt. The explosion in the city of Herat left the courtyard of the Guzargah Mosque littered with bodies, the ground stained with blood, video from the scene showed. Men shouted, “God is great,” in shock and horror. Read:One year on, Afghans at risk await evacuation, relocation The bomb went off during Friday noon prayers, when mosques are full of worshippers. Among the dead was Mujib-ul Rahman Ansari, a prominent cleric who was known across Afghanistan for his criticism of the country’s Western-backed governments over the past two decades. Ansari was seen as close to the Taliban, who seized control over Afghanistan a year ago as foreign forces withdrew. His death was confirmed by the chief Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid. Just before the bombing, Ansari had been meeting in another part of the city with the Taliban government’s deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was on a visit to Herat. He had rushed from the meeting to the mosque to get to the noon prayers, an aide to Baradar said in a tweet mourning the cleric. Ambulances transported 18 bodies and 21 people wounded from the blast to hospitals in Herat, said Mohammad Daud Mohammadi, an official at the Herat ambulance center, There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday’s blast. Read: Taliban: 2 civilians killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan Last month, a bombing at a mosque in the capital Kabul targeted and killed a pro-Taliban cleric in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. IS has waged a bloody campaign of attacks on Taliban targets and minority groups, particularly Shiites whom the extremist Sunni IS considers heretics. It has frequently hit mosques with suicide attacks during Friday prayers. Herat’s Guzargah Mosque, where Ansari has long been the preacher, draws followers of Sunni Islam, the dominant stream in Afghanistan that is also followed by the Taliban. Ansari was for years a thorn in the side of Afghanistan’s pro-Western government. In his sermons at the Guzargah, he urged his many supporters to carry out protests against the governments and preached against women’s rights.

3 years ago