ISLAMABAD: Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki, on Monday met and condoled with Pakistani cleric and politician Maulana Fazlur Rehman, after a suicide bombing killed at least 54 people at a political rally organised by his Jamiat Ulema Islam party.
The Daesh group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, which has brought into focus the challenges Pakistan faces in keeping militants at bay as it enters election season.
On behalf of the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Ambassador Mr. Nawaf Al-Maliki offered condolences and sympathy to the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as he expressed to His Eminence Sheikh Fazlur Rahman Mufti that the Kingdom stands by Pakistan in this great affliction, wishing the injured a speedy recovery," the embassy tweeted.
In a statement, Daesh said a suicide bomber from the group "detonated his explosive jacket in the middle of a crowd" in the town of Khar. Hundreds of supporters of the JUI-F were meeting in the northwestern Bajaur district for an election rally when the bomb went off in one of Pakistan’s bloodiest attacks in recent years. Provincial police said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting.
Bajaur district near the Afghan border was once a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban — a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban government — before the Pakistani army drove the militants out of the tribal districts in successive operations that began in late 2000s.
The Pakistani Taliban condemned the attack, while the Afghan Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said on Twitter that “such crimes cannot be justified in any way.”
