ISLAMABAD: Suspected suicide bomber owing allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) blew himself up inside a packed place of worship during Friday prayers in southern Pakistani city of Shikarpur killing at least 61 worshippers and injuring 50 others.
Shikarpur is located in strife torn province of Sindh where radical Sunni militants are targeting Shia mosques and ethnic tensions are high.
Civil Hospital Shikarpur issued a list of 61 victims out of whom 58 bodies had been identified whereas the identity of 3 others was yet to be confirmed.
The blast ripped through an Karbala Maula Imambargah in Lakhi Dar area when it was packed with people for Friday prayers.
Abdul Quddus, a senior police official in Shikarpur, told AFP the initial investigation suggested it may have been a suicide blast.
A number of victims were trapped under debris after the roof of the Imambargah collapsed due to the intensity of the blast. Many of the casualties were shifted to hospitals in Sukkur and Larkana districts of Sindh.
Reuters reported that Jundullah, a splinter group of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which last year pledged support for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), claimed responsibility.
Our target was the Shia mosque … They are our enemies, said Fahad Marwat, a Jundullah spokesman.
Local resident Mohammad Jehangir said he had felt the earth move beneath my feet as he prayed at another mosque around 1.5 kilometres away.
An official with a national Shia organisation, Rahat Kazmi said that up to 400 people were worshiping in the mosque when the blast struck.
Witness Zahid Noon said hundreds of people had rushed to the scene to try to dig out survivors trapped under the roof of the Imambargah, which collapsed in the blast.
Footage aired by local TV stations showed the mosque’s blood-splattered floor and walls. The ball bearings packed with the explosives made holes in the walls and ceiling. Volunteers and distraught relatives in blood-soaked clothes were seen helping the wounded and taking them to nearby hospitals in cars, motorbikes and rickshaws.
The area is scattered with blood and flesh and it smells of burnt meat, people are screaming at each other it is chaos, Noon told AFP.
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon told Dawn newspaper that an emergency had been declared in all hospitals in Shikarpur and surrounding talukas and cities.
The incident comes as Pakistan is attempting to implement the National Action Plan to combat and root out terrorism from the country, an initiative that was set in motion after the Dec 16 attack on Peshawars Army Public School in December 2014.
It was the second major attack on an Imambargah in the country since the beginning of 2015; the first being an attack on Rawalpindis Imambargah Aun Mohammad Rizvi in the garrison citys Chatian Hatian area.
Imambargah, known in Arabic as Hussainia, is used as congregation hall for commemoration ceremonies held in memory of Martyrs of Karbala. The name comes from Husayn Ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). However in the Indian sub-continent Shia Muslims use Imambargah also for Friday Prayers.
The Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) announced to observe a ‘peaceful strike’ across Sindh in the wake of the terrorist attack.
MWM central leader Allama Mohammed Amin Shaheedi announced three days mourning, describing the incident a failure of the government.
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