A local Islamist leader and three others, including children, were injured after a blast ripped through a mosque in Pakistan’s Waziristan region during Friday prayers, police said.
Officials believe the blast targeted Abdullah Nadeem, a local leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwestern part of the country.
Nadeem has been hospitalised, and according to local media, his condition remains serious. Two children were also among the injured in the blast at the Maulana Abdul Aziz Mosque, the South Waziristan district police chief said.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the explosion that took place in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan.
The attack occurred a month after another blast killed JUI-S leader Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani and five others, injuring 15, when a suicide bomber targeted the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Pakistan's Nowshera district, a historic training ground for the Afghan Taliban.
This blast comes just days after Balochistan separatist militants hijacked a train and held passengers hostage in a day-long bloody standoff with security forces. Balochistan also borders Afghanistan, and the Pakistan government has alleged Kabul's complicity in the attack.
Pakistan has pledged to intensify its crackdown on rising militancy, accusing Afghanistan of sheltering militants, a claim denied by the ruling Afghan Taliban.
Source: India Today