ISLAMABAD: Pakistan strongly condemned the terrorist attack at a mosque in Kandahar city, capital of Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, which killed 47 people and wounded scored on Friday.
“Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including despicable attacks on places of worship,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement late Friday.
The government and people of Pakistan convey their support, and heartfelt condolences, to the people of Afghanistan and stand in solidarity with them in this hour of grief, the statement added.
According to local media, the explosions occurred inside the Fatimiya mosque — a Shi’ite Muslim mosque — at midday when hundreds of worshippers were offering Friday prayers.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombing. In a statement posted late Friday on social media, the militant group said two of the group’s members shot and killed security guards manning the entrance of the mosque.
One detonated his explosives at the entrance of the mosque and the other inside, it said.
An eyewitness told AFP he heard three explosions, one at the main door of the mosque, another at a southern area, and a third where worshippers wash before their prayers.
Another witness also said that three blasts rocked the mosque in the centre of the town during Friday prayers, the busiest congregation of the week.
“We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shiite brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded,” tweeted interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti, of the Taliban movement that rules Afghanistan.
“Special forces of the Islamic Emirate have arrived in the area to determine the nature of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
According to an AFP journalist, the mosque was full of people at the time of the explosions, and at least 15 ambulances rushed to the scene.
Graphic images posted to social media, which could not be immediately verified, showed bodies lying on the floor of the Fatemieh mosque.
— With additional input from AFP, AP
