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Officials Say Nearly 50 Dead From Pakistan Rally Blast

by VOA News

   Officials in Pakistan say the death toll from Sunday's suicide bombing
   at a political rally in the northwestern part of the country has risen
   to 46. One more person died in hospital overnight.

   Authorities VOA has spoken to are denying the figure of 54 deaths
   reported by some media.

   The blast happened during a workers' convention of a religious
   political party, Jamiat Ulema Islam , in the town of Khar in the tribal
   area of Bajaur near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

   Mourners began holding funerals Monday for the victims.

   The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack
   in a message Monday.

   United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned
   the attack, his spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Monday.

   "The secretary-general denounces all instances of terrorism and
   deliberate targeted attacks against civilians and stands in solidarity
   with the government and the people of Pakistan in combating this
   scourge," Haq said.

   The U.N. Security Council called the bombing "heinous and cowardly" and
   expressed condolences to the families of the victims and to the
   Pakistani government.

   "The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold
   perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these
   reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice,"
   the council said in a statement.

   Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence
   France-Presse and Reuters.