The bombing was yet another show of Muslim-on-Muslim violence in a rivalry between jihad groups.
According to the AP report, “the Bajur district near the Afghan border was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban — a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban government — before the Pakistani army drove the militants out of the area.” The report below suggests that the bomber was a member of the Islamic State, and according to Al-Jazeera, ISIS-K (Khorasan) is suspected in the bombing. This is the Afghanistan affiliate of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which also extends into Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asia.
The Taliban and ISIS-K have been battling it out for regional control.
“Suicide bomber at political rally in northwest Pakistan kills at least 44 people, wounds nearly 200,” by Anwarullah Khan and Riaz Khan, Associated Press, July 31, 2023:
KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally in a former stronghold of militants in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 44 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack that a senior leader said was meant to weaken Pakistani Islamists.
The Bajur district near the Afghan border was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban — a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban government — before the Pakistani army drove the militants out of the area. Supporters of hard-line Pakistani cleric and political party leader Fazlur Rehman, whose Jamiat Ulema Islam generally supports regional Islamists, were meeting in Bajur in a hall close to a market outside the district capital. Party officials said Rehman was not at the rally but organizers added tents because so many supporters showed up, and party volunteers with batons were helping control the crowd.
Officials were announcing the arrival of Abdul Rasheed, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party, when the bomb went off in one of Pakistan’s bloodiest attacks in recent years.
Provincial police said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting. It said initial investigations suggested the Islamic State group — which operates in Afghanistan and is an enemy of the Afghan Taliban — could be behind the attack, and officers were still investigating.
“There was dust and smoke around, and I was under some injured people from where I could hardly stand up, only to see chaos and some scattered limbs,” said Adam Khan, 45, who was knocked to the ground by the blast around 4 p.m. and hit by splinters in his leg and both hands.
The Pakistan Taliban, or TTP, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that the bombing was aimed at setting Islamists against each other. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “such crimes cannot be justified in any way.”…
Transmaster says
It is bloody but as long as Muslims are killing each other and leave the rest of the world alone I don’t have a problem with that. As President Trump said it is not our [the west] job to straighten out your problems.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Pakistan should just merge w/ Afghanistan, which at least has a longer recognized history, & just have the Taliban run things. How much worse would it be?
Walter Sieruk says
In spite of what the politically correct people might say there is nothing wrong with calling a dangerous jihadist a “Muslim terrorist.” This is because that term is keeping within the bounds of reality with the instructions found in the Quran for jihad -minded devout Muslims. For the Quran instructs “”Strike terror [into the heart ‘of the enemies of Allah and your enemies.” Surah 8:60.
Walter Sieruk says
With this new information , it very much needs to be reiterated that in this twenty-first century conflict between the Judeo- Christian West and the Islamic East which also has been termed “The war of Ideas” the West needs ideas for its very foundation and defense that is far superior to something as weak and worthless as just “opinion.”
What the West needs is wisdom. As the Bible instructs “Wisdom is better than strength.” Ecclesiastes 9:16. [N.K.J.V.] Likewise, this same book of the Bible also teaches in 9:18 “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” Therefore, wisdom is in strong contrast to opinion. Also greatly opposed to wisdom is folly and deceit.. As the Bible in Proverbs 14:8 informs the reader ‘The folly of fools is deceit.”
This deception of deceit may be seen, by all those who are willing to see, in the Islamic doctrine of a virgin filled paradise designed specify for the male Muslim jihadist who dies in the jihad for the cause of Islam, in what they so inappropriately call a “martyrdom operation.” Many a times a jihadist/Muslim is so very deluded that he actually put on his video recording that after he dies in the jihad as a “martyr” he will then in paradise have a “wedding with virgins.” This firm but blind unquestioning folly is the result of such a man believing in deception of a false doctrine. With Light of the Wisdom of Jesus a belief in a “wedding with virgins.” is the outcome of a person accepting as the “truth” an invalid and false. For Jesus taught “you are mistaken, not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angles in heaven.” Matthew 22:29,30.
A jihadist will after dies and such a murderous way will have a very hard and harsh “reality check” In that “his expectation will perish…” Proverb 11:7. For he will then discover that he was deceived by false doctrine and lie of “a paradise with virgins” and to his shock and horror he will find himself trapped and suffering ,with no hope of escape, in the fires of hell. As the Bible teaches a murder “will not inherit the kingdom of God,” Galatians 5:21. This is sad and tragic but nevertheless it’s the reality of the truth.
Walter Sieruk says
Any jihadist just after his Islamic suicide /homicide attack right after he died ,to his shock and horror, he found himself trapped and suffering in the fires of an awful place the Bible calls “hell.” Luke 16:19-31.
That jihad minded Muslim of ISIS was dangerous to self and others because that he was indoctrinated with and likewise believed in the doctrine found in the Quran, 44:54. 55:56. 78;31.,of a lust –filled sex paradise with many virgins, in in for his use only, because he died as a “martyr” for the cause of Islam. That jihadist will discover the hard way that he was instructed in and put his faith in a false doctrine that is from a false religious book of false religion .This doctrine of a paradise for the jihadist who died fighting for Islam was only an enticing religious story of fiction. The Bible does give warning against giving “heed to fables…” First Timothy 1:4. [N.K.J.V]
As for dying in a murderous jihad attack, in spite, of the Muslim clerics falsely calling it a “martyrdom operation.” That jihadist after in dies in a jihad murder attack, and learn too late, the truth of Bible with informs its reader that a murderer “will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:21.
In addition, such false teachers, as those imams and mullahs, who teach and ingrain false yet enticing doctrines as that a lust /sex fill place with virgins into the hearts and minds of others had been predicted in the Bible. For it is written, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine , but according to their own desires , because they have itching ears ; they will heap up for themselves teachers ;and they will away their ears from the truth and be turned to fables.” Second Timothy 4 : 3,4.
Linde B. says
To Walter Sieruk- Thank you for your profound comments about Islam. It is amazing to me that many Muslims around the world just “take it in stride” that Islam gives sanction to murder of people who do not want to follow Islam or believe in Allah. And that is why I say Islam is the religion of Satan the devil. ?
tim gallagher says
Peaceful islam at work as usual. These knuckle dragging pieces of crap are never happy except when they are murdering people. I could not care if they are only tearing into one another, but they also kill endless non-Muslims all around the world, so islam and its followers are a massive problem for all of us. If Muslims could only be shut away into their own barbaric countries then they could rip into one another but would be unable to harm the more civilised non-Muslims of the world.