A suicide attack in a popular shrine in southern Pakistan has killed at least 50 people, reports say.
The bomber blew himself up among devotees in the shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in the town of Sehwan, in Sindh province, police said. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned the attack, which has been claimed by so-called Islamic State.
The shrine was crowded as Thursday is considered a sacred day for Muslims to pray there.
The blast, in one of the country’s most revered shrines, is the largest in a string of bombings in Pakistan this week, claimed by the Pakistan Taliban and other Islamist militants.
Dozens of others were injured. Nearby medical facilities were said to be insufficient to handle large-scale casualties, and those that could were two hours’ drive away in Jamshoro and Hyderabad.
In a statement, Mr Sharif vowed to fight Islamist militants who have carried out attacks in Pakistan.
“The past few days have been hard, and my heart is with the victims,” he said.
“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.”
At least seven people were killed on Wednesday and several more injured in two separate suicide bombings in the country’s north-west.
And on Monday, a suicide bombing in the eastern city of Lahore killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 100. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, said it had carried out that attack.
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