Islamabad: Two separate suicide bombings in Pakistan's dangerous Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces resulted in at least 65 fatalities and over 100 injuries. As the nation observed Eid Milad-un Nabi, the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad, the assailants struck at two mosques.
The first blast struck a mosque in Mastung in Balochistan, where people had gathered to celebrate the Prohphet’s birthday, killing at least 50 people, including senior police official Nawaz Gishkori. Balochistan’s police chief Abdul Khaliq Shaikh confirmed that it was a suicide attack.
Footage on TV channels showed an open area near the mosque strewn with the shoes of the dead and wounded after the powerful explosion. “We were preparing for the Prophet’s birthday procession when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the stage where our chief guests were sitting,” said an eyewitness.
Locals and rescuers were seen transporting the injured to hospitals, where a state of emergency had been declared and requests for blood were being made, while some of the dead were covered with shawls and bedsheets.
Following the explosion in Mastung, an explosion at a mosque in Hangu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killed at least five people and injured more than 10 others. According to Fazal Akbar Khan, deputy commissioner of Hangu, two assailants attempted to attack the nearby Doaba police station. The station is just a few metres from the mosque. A spokesman for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police said that two suicide bombers and a vehicle full of explosives were intercepted. One of the bombers was neutralised at the gate when he tried to enter the mosque in Hangu while another detonated his explosives. The roof of the mosque collapsed due to the blast impact.