The government of Pakistan is doing everything it can to find those responsible for the bombing

An explosion of a powerful bomb in the northern part of the Khorasan province, Afghanistan, during a protest against the Pakistani Taliban

The Islamic State in Khorasan Province, which is based in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, is a rival of the Afghan Taliban. Bajur was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban — a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban government — before several Pakistani army offensives that ended in 2016 claimed to have driven them out of the area.

The political party of Rehman, who is a cleric, is in the coalition government in Islamabad. It’s not clear if he was present. Meetings are being organized across the country to mobilize supporters for the coming elections.

Police initially said 10 people were dead, but later more bodies were brought in to the hospital, raising the death toll to 35. He said some of the wounded were taken to the city’s main hospital in critical condition and the death toll could increase.

Police and health officials said that a powerful bomb exploded during a rally in Pakistan’s northwestern Bajur district, which borders Afghanistan. At least 35 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.

The explosion happened when the workers convention of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party was taking place, said Nazir Khan, the senior police officer.

The Afghanistan-Pakistan Economic Corridor (EECOC) cleric and the suicide bombing at a school in Bajur

The bombing that took place in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday was one of the worst attacks since a Taliban attack on a school in the country’s northwest in 2014, killing 146 people.

China has been helping Pakistan avoid a default on payments. Some Chinese nationals have also been targeted by militants in northwestern Pakistan and elsewhere.

The event to mark a decade of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was scheduled for Monday, the day before the bombing, and was attended by Chinese Vice PM He Lifeng.

The Taliban did not come forward to speak about the attack. The TTP said that the attack was meant to set the two groups against each other. Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “such crimes cannot be justified in any way.”

The cleric was promised that those who orchestrated the attack would be punished. The bombing has also drawn nationwide condemnation, with ruling and opposition parties offering condolences to the families of the victims. The U.S. and Russian embassies in Islamabad also condemned the attack.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to dissolve the parliament in August to pave the way for the vote. The coalition government came to power in April 2022, after ousting former Prime Minister Khan in a no-confidence vote in the legislature.

The cleric’s supporters had gathered in Bajut on Sunday as part of their party’s preparations for the next parliamentary elections, expected sometime in October or November after the current parliament’s five-year term ends.

All of the victims were members of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party. He did not attend the rally, held under a large tent close to a market in Bajur, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing, which also wounded nearly 200 people. Police said their initial investigation suggests the Islamic State group’s regional affiliate could be behind the attack.

As the death toll rose to at least 45 from a huge suicide bombing at a pro-Taliban rally, Pakistan held funerals on Monday for victims of the attack and said that they would hunt down those behind the attack.