A senior Pakistani police official says the death toll from an Islamic State (IS) suicide bombing at a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan has risen to 80 people, as Pakistan’s political and military leaders said they would go to any length to crush Islamic extremists.
Aid workers at the scene of the tragedy say at least 30 children were among those killed on February 16, while more than 100 people were wounded.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the massacre as an attack on the future of “progressive, inclusive” Pakistan and vowed to do “anything possible” to protect the country, his office said.
Military chief Qamar Bajwa vowed to step up ongoing offensives against Taliban rebels, saying every drop of blood would be avenged.
A spokesman for the medical charity Edhi said the attacker appeared to have targeted the women’s wing of the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine, and children who were accompanying their mothers at the time of the attack had been killed.
Full story: rferl.org
RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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