Islamabad, Oct 1 (EFE).- The death toll in the recent suicide bombings at two mosques in Pakistan rose to 60 on Sunday, officials told EFE, meanwhile government officials have publicly accused Indian agencies of carrying out terrorist activities in the country.
“The death toll has reached 60 and more than 50 are injured,” police chief Javed Lehri of Mastung district, in the southern province of Balochistan – where the deadliest attacks took place with over 50 deaths-, told EFE.
The data provided by Lehri also includes the deaths in the second attack that day on a mosque in the city of Hangu, in the troubled province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The mosques in Pakistan were especially crowded when the attacks occurred on Friday, with people celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid Miladun Nabi, the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad.
The first attack occurred near a mosque located within a police perimeter in Mastung, when a suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of people preparing for a procession.
Among the dead were several police officers, including a high-ranking officer who authorities say tried to stop the suicide bomber.
The second attack, just a few hours apart, took place in another mosque in Hangu city and was committed by at least two suicide bombers during Friday’s sermon, when it was crowded.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the main group of the Pakistani Taliban, distanced itself from the attacks and said it does not target places of worship or civilians.
Such attacks on places of worship are often linked to the jihadist group Islamic State of Khorasan (ISKP), a local branch of extremists. This group often claims its attacks within a few hours or a few days after the attacks.
“Whatever the group is behind this attack, they are all the same. Every group is being handled by the same place. RAW is behind all of them. This incident is being investigated. All the incidents which have happened before, have been unearthed and RAW was behind all of them,” caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti told reporters on Saturday, referring to India’s intelligence agency.
“The government would conduct an operation as big as needed to restore the writ of the state in the province. It was decided we will strike the terrorists and would not even spare their facilitators and supporters,” he added. EFE
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