it was a suicide blast(blast)

Peshawar. A massive bomb blast (blast)  rocked a meeting of a hardline Islamist political party in a restive tribal district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. At least 44 people were killed and around 150 others were injured in the blast at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazle workers conference in the capital Khar.
Panicked people were seen at the spot after the explosion. Along with this, ambulances were also seen coming to the spot to take the injured to the hospitals. More than 500 people were present at the conference venue at the time of the blast.

Police DIG (Malkand range) Nasir Mehmood Satti said that preliminary investigation revealed that it was a suicide blast. Evidence is being collected to ascertain the nature of the explosion. He said that the area has been sealed and a search operation has been started. So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Regarding this bomb blast, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman demanded Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and caretaker Chief Minister of the province Azam Khan to investigate the incident. He also urged the party workers to reach the hospital and donate blood. Fazal said, “JUI workers should remain peaceful and the federal and provincial governments should provide the best treatment to the injured.”

At the same time, Chief Minister Khan condemned the blast and sought a report from the district administration. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali, who is also a central member of JUIF, confirmed the death toll.

Police cordoned off the area
Police said that the injured have been admitted to the nearest hospital, out of which the condition of most of the people is said to be critical. Law enforcement agencies have cordoned off the area. Rescue 1122 spokesman Bilal Faizi told Dawn newspaper that five ambulances have reached the spot. Speaking on Geo News, JUI-F leader Hafiz Hamdullah said that he was to attend the conference today but could not come due to some personal commitments.

The JUI-F leader said, “I strongly condemn the blast and want to send a message to those behind it that this is not jihad but terrorism.” He said it was an attack on humanity and Bajaur. He said that this is not the first time that JUI-F has been targeted. He said, “This has happened earlier also… Our workers have been targeted. We raised our voice on this in Parliament but no action was taken.

Increased terrorist attacks in Pakistan
Pakistan has seen an increase in terrorist attacks after the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in August 2021. In November last year, the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) scrapped an indefinite ceasefire agreed with the federal government and ordered its militants to launch attacks on Pakistan’s security forces.

On 30 January, a Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber detonated his explosives during afternoon prayers at a mosque in Peshawar, killing 101 people and injuring over 200. In February, heavily armed TTP terrorists stormed the office of the police chief in Karachi, Pakistan’s most populous city, in a shootout that killed three terrorists and four others, including two police constables.