DADU: More than 70people including women and children were martyred and over 250sustained critical injuries in a suicide attack at the shrine of Sufi Saint Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan Sharife on Thursday, medics and police said.
Thousands of devotees from across the country arrive at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar every Thursday.
Police have confirmed it was a suicide blast.
Police officials in Sehwan said the blast took place inside the shrine with the Assistant Superintendent of Police Rashid stating it was a suicide bombing.
The News reporter Imdad Soomro said the condition of more than 50 pilgrims is critical, the number of death toll could rise as there is only one small hospital in the area.
However, emergency has been declared in the hospitals of Hyderabad, Dadu and Jamshoro.
Police and security forces have cordoned off the area.
DG ISPR in his tweet said Army and Rangers personnel have been moved with medical support.
Hyderabad CMH is ready to receive casualties, the Major Gen. Asif Ghafoor said.
A spokesman for medical charity Edhi said the attackerappeared to have targeted the women´s wing of the shrine, andaround 30 children accompanying their mothers were dead.
Islamic State (Daesh) , the Middle East-based militant group,claimed responsibility for the attack, the group´s affiliatednews agency AMAQ reported.
Senior police officer Shabbir Sethar told Reuters from alocal hospital that the death toll was likely to rise."At least 72 are dead and over 150 have been injured,"
Sethar said by telephone.
Television footage from the famous Lal Shahbaz Qalandarshrine in the town of Sehwan Sharif showed army and paramilitarymedical teams reaching the site and injured people being takento nearby hospitals in ambulances and a military helicopter.
"We were there for the love of our saint, for the worship ofAllah," a wailing woman told a television channeloutside the shrine, her headscarf streaked in blood.
"Who wouldhurt us when we were there for devotion?"
The attack comes as the Pakistani Taliban and rival Islamistmilitant groups carry out their threats of a new offensive.The violence has shattered a period of improving security,underscoring how militants still undermine stability in thecountry.
The high death toll at the shrine makes it one of the worstattacks in Pakistan in recent years.In August last year, at least 74 people, mostly lawyers,were killed in a suicide bombing of a hospital in thesouthwestern city of Quetta.
In November, an explosion claimed by Islamic State rippedthrough a Muslim shrine in southwestern Pakistan, killing atleast 52 people and wounding scores.
SINDH SUFIS
At a crossroads of historic trade routes, religions andcultures, the southern province of Sindh where the shrine islocated has always been a poor but religiously tolerant region,helping to shield it from much of the violence morecommon in other parts of Pakistan.
The country´s powerful military, which has cracked down oninsurgent groups in recent years leading to a sharp drop inmilitant violence, vowed a swift, decisive response.
"Each drop of nation´s blood shall be revenged, and revengedimmediately.No more restraint for anyone," Army Chief QamarBajwa said in a statement.
Shortly after the blast, the army announced it was closingthe border with Afghanistan with immediate effect for securityreasons.
Insurgents operate on either side of the neighbours´long and porous frontier.Different militant groups, often trying to outdo each other,say they are responsible for the bombings.
In the case of the Quetta hospital blast, both a faction ofthe Pakistani Taliban - Jamaat-ur-Ahrar - and Islamic Stateclaimed responsibility.Jamaat also said it was responsible for a bombing in theeastern city of Lahore earlier this week that killed 13 people.
In a separate incident late on Thursday, gunmen on amotorbike killed three policemen and one civilian in the city ofDera Ismail Khan.
"STAND UNITED
"The bomber entered the shrine as crowds massed on Thursday,a statement from the Sindh police spokesman said.Rescue officials said dozens of wounded people were beingferried in private cars to hospitals.
The nearest major hospitalwas nearly an hour´s drive away in Dadu district.Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif quickly condemned the bombing,decrying the assault on the Sufi religious minority.He vowed to fight militants, who target thegovernment, judiciary and anyone who does not adhere to theirstrict interpretation of Sunni Islam.
"The past few days have been hard, and my heart is with the victims," Sharif said."But we can´t let these events divide us,or scare us.We must stand united in this struggle for thePakistani identity, and universal humanity.
"An ancient mystic branch of Islam, Sufism has been practisedin Pakistan for centuries.Lal Shahbaz Qalander is Pakistan´s most revered Sufi shrine,dedicated to a 13th-century saint in SehwanSharif.
Thursdays are an especially important day for local Sufis,meaning that the shrine was packed at the time of the blast.