An explosion hit the Maulana Abdul Aziz Mosque in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday, wounding Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) district chief Abdullah Nadeem and three others while they were offering Friday prayers.
Police said that the blast, which happened about 1:45 p.m. in South Waziristan district, was the result of an improvised explosive device (IED). The authorities think that Nadeem was the target since he had earlier received death threats and escaped an attack several months ago, reports The Express Tribune.
The strike follows weeks after a February 28 explosion in Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Nowshera, where six persons, among them cleric Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, were killed. The February 28 attack also injured at least 15 others and was blamed on a suicide bomber, unlike the IED on Friday.
No one has taken responsibility for the South Waziristan attack, said police spokesman Habib Islam in Dawn. Militant violence against Pakistan has picked up in the last few years, with various groups like Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Islamic State (ISIS) attacking religious leaders, military personnel, and police time and again.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has been haunted by insurgency and sectarian strife for long, continues to be a terror hotbed. At least 346 individuals, including 22 civilians, have lost their lives in terrorism-related attacks in the province until February 25, as per the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP).
An investigation into Friday’s attack has been initiated by the authorities as security fears intensify over growing extremist violence in Pakistan.
