A suspected suicide bombing took place before a big rally and caused a lot of damage and hurt many people. Let's find out more about what happened.
On Sunday evening, there was a big explosion in northwestern Pakistan. It happened at around 5 p.m., just one hour before a public rally was supposed to start. The explosion took place in a district called Bajaur, which is near the border with Afghanistan. The rally was organized by a group called Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), who are part of the government.
Unfortunately, the explosion caused a lot of harm. At least 40 people were killed, and hundreds more were injured. The local hospital received more than 40 bodies, and there were over 200 injured people. Some of them are in critical condition, which means they're badly hurt.
Among the victims was the leader of the JUI in that area, Maulana Ziaullah. Even a cameraman from a local news channel got critically injured. It's really sad to see innocent people getting hurt like this.
Response and Investigation
After the bombing, helicopters were sent to take the critically injured people to hospitals in the capital city. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned the attack and told the security forces to do everything they can to catch the people responsible for this terrible act.
More Attacks
This bombing is not the first one to happen recently. There have been a few others in the same province in the past few weeks. It's really scary to think that people are getting hurt like this so often.
Who's Behind It?
Right now, nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack. But the JUI has been targeted by a group called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the past. The JUI is against suicide bombings and attacks on Pakistani security forces, so they have made some enemies.
International Reactions
Even other countries are showing their support and sadness about what happened. The Afghan Taliban, who are in charge of Afghanistan right now, condemned the attack and called it a criminal act. Turkey, another country, also expressed deep sorrow and condemned the terror attack. They said they will continue to stand with Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.
