PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) district emir Abdullah Nadeem along three others sustained injuries when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded during Friday prayer at a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan, police said.
“The improvised explosive device (IED), apparently planted to the pulpit exploded at around 1:45 pm at Maulana Abdul Aziz Mosque on Azam Warsak Bypass Road,” District Police Officer Asif Bahader confirmed to the media.
“JUI-F district emir Abdullah Nadeem was seriously wounded in the blast while three others also sustained minor injuries in the blast”, the police officer added.
The injured were identified as Rehmanullah, Mullah Noor, and Shah Behran, a statement issued by the police said.
All the injured individuals were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital for immediate medical assistance.
DPO Bahader said that the police reached the site of the blast soon after the blast and collected evidence, adding that further investigation is underway.
District Police Spokesman Habib Islam informed the media that no group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
“Maulana Abdullah had been receiving death threats for quite some time and had survived an attack seven or eight months ago,” he elaborated.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman condemned the mosque blast, saying its sanctity had been violated in the holy month of Ramazan.
“The blast is tragic and condemnable,” he said in a statement.
He urged the government and institutions to brief the nation on the situation in Balochistan and KP, adding that lawlessness and other key issues in both provinces were being ignored in parliament.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the blast in a statement from his office, stating that the incident “violated” the sanctity of the mosque.
“The sanctity of the mosque was violated during the holy month of Ramazan,” Naqvi was quoted as saying. “The blast … is a cowardly act of the enemy.”
The interior minister said that the “beasts” who carried out the attack deserve no concessions and prayed for the speedy recovery of Maulana Abdullah and the other injured.
Mosques, particularly during Friday prayers when large congregations gather, have been targeted in KP in the past as well.
Last month, six people, including JUI-S leader Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, were killed and 15 injured when a suicide blast ripped through the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in KP’s Nowshera district.
On January 30, 2023, a blast inside a mosque shook Peshawar’s Police Lines area, with officials saying that at least 59 people were killed and 157 were injured.
