ISLAMABAD — A suicide bomber turned a spiritual dance celebration at a religious shrine into a slaughterhouse Thursday, killing at least 75 people and wounding more than 250 in the worst act of terrorism to hit Pakistan in months.
At least 50 of the wounded were critically hurt in the explosion at the Sufi shrine in a remote part of southern Pakistan, officials said. At least 20 women and nine children were among the dead.
The Islamic State, the extreme Sunni militant organization based in Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Islamic State, which regards members of other Muslim groups as nonbelievers deserving death, also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Sufi shrine in southwestern Pakistan in November. Sufism, popular in Pakistan, is regarded as a relatively tolerant branch of Islam.
Pakistani officials have expressed skepticism about the presence of the Islamic State in the country, but they acknowledge that some local militant groups have expressed support for it.
A wave of militant strikes has shaken Pakistan this week, underscoring the challenges faced by the civil and military leadership to counter extremist violence. At least eight attacks across the country were reported, most claimed by the Taliban.
On Wednesday, seven people were killed in northwestern Pakistan in two suicide bombings, one targeting judges in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. On Monday, at least 13 people were killed in Lahore, in the east, when militants targeted a protest.
The bombing Thursday evening targeted the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a popular Sufi saint, in Sehwan, a city in Jamshoro district of the southern Sindh province. A large number of people had been performing a spiritual, devotional dance when the bomber struck in the courtyard, officials said, turning a place of spiritual reverie into a spectacle of blood and body parts.
The remoteness of the region added to the difficulties faced by the survivors and emergency responders. The nearest big city is about 90 miles away.
Khadim Hussain Rind, a senior provincial police officer, said more than two dozen police officials had been deputized for security at the event and that closed-circuit cameras had been installed for surveillance of the shrine.
“However, it is very difficult to stop a suicide bomber in a big crowd,” Rind told media outlets.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the bombing as an assault on a “progressive inclusive future of Pakistan.”
Sufi shrines and mosques have been targeted in the past by Taliban militants, who view Sufi Islam as contrary to their beliefs.
“The past few days have been hard, and my heart is with the victims,” the prime minister said in the statement. “But we can’t let these events divide us, or scare us. We must stand united in this struggle for the Pakistani identity and universal humanity.”
Information for this article was contributed by Adil Jawad and Munir Ahmed of The Associated Press.
Pakistani officials have expressed skepticism about the presence of the Islamic State in the country, but they acknowledge that some local militant groups have expressed support for it.