The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 54 people in Pakistan, as the country battles a rising tide of militant attacks.
The bombing took place at a rally for a pro-Taliban party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province bordering Afghanistan that has faced a rapidly declining security situation due to attacks from militant groups including the Pakistan Taliban and Islamic State’s regional affiliate.
More than 1,000 people were at the rally for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), an ultra-conservative Islamist party that is part of the ruling coalition and known for its close ties to the Taliban in Afghanistan, and several regional party leaders were killed. Doctors at local hospitals said they were unable to deal with the scale of the approximately 200 injured, and dozens had to be taken in helicopters to other provinces for treatment.
Authorities had indicated that the jihadist group IS in Khorasan province (ISKP) was behind Sunday’s attack, which was confirmed by Islamic State’s Amaq news agency on Monday night who published a photographer of the suicide bomber.
“A suicide attacker from the Islamic State … detonated his explosive jacket in the middle of a crowd,” said the news outlet.
ISKP, a branch of Islamic State centred in Afghanistan, has declared itself an enemy of the Afghan Taliban, accusing them of not imposing a strict enough Islamic regime, and has been behind several recent deadly attacks targeting clerics, diplomats and schools in Afghanistan. It has also condemned and targeted JUI-F for associating with the Taliban and the Pakistani government, accusing the party of betraying its Islamic principles.
The Pakistan Taliban, known as the TTP, had quickly distanced themselves from the bombing, with their spokesperson saying that “such crimes cannot be justified in any way”.
Hafiz Hamdullah, a senator and spokesperson for JUI-F, said he had closely missed being present at the rally and condemned what he said was a major security failure by the security forces and the government.
Hamdullah was adamant that JUI-F’s political activity would not be halted in the buildup to Pakistan’s general election, which is due to take place by October. “These attacks will not stop us from rallying and taking part in election rallies,” he said.
The bombing was the latest violent incident in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a region that in recent months has been subjected to near weekly militant attacks, mostly carried out by TTP fighters, which the government and military have struggled to bring under control.
During the previous government under the then prime minister, Imran Khan, hundreds of TTP fighters were brought back from Afghanistan into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as part of a failed programme of rehabilitation. Since then, growing numbers of Taliban militants have carried out consistent attacks on military and police posts in the state, including in January when TTP militants killed more than 80 people in a suicide blast at a mosque in Peshawar, the capital of the province.
A US state department report in March warned that the TTP and ISKP were growing in presence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the TTP were trying to take over the state government and establish sharia law. ISKP was established in 2015 but has emerged as a prominent jihadist force in the region only in the past few years.
Zahid Hussain, a political analyst, said ISKP had been taking advantage of the growing instability in the border region to establish itself more firmly in Pakistan. Hussain said it was an indicator that Pakistan was facing militancy on multiple fronts in the region, which continued to spiral out of control.
“The rising instability and militant attacks provide a window to all militant organisations, including ISKP, to ramp up their attacks,” he said. “These attacks on police, political rallies and security forces have ended the brief illusion of peace in Pakistan.”
Many fear that more attacks by militant groups could take place in the build up to the election, due to be held in the next three months, which will be held amid significant political turbulence.
Speaking hours before the attack on Sunday, Mohsin Dawar, a politician who heads the National Democratic Movement in Pakistan and is from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, warned that the militancy threatened to spill out beyond state borders. “This is a raging fire. It must be put out now or it will burn everyone, across Pakistan,” he said.
