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Pakistani police say the death toll from a suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine in the country’s southwest has increased to 24 after four victims died at a hospital overnight.
The attack took place on October 5 in the Jhal Magsi district, which is located about 300 kilometers east of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan Province.
Senior police officer Mohammad Iqbal said on October 7 that more than 20 victims were still receiving treatment, some of them with critical injuries.
The extremist Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack followed a bombing on the same shrine in 2005 that killed 35 people.
In February, IS militants claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine in Sindh Province in which 88 people were killed.
Sufism is a branch of Islam that espouses a mystical, inner belief and incorporates music in its worship. It has been rejected as heretical by IS militants and other extremists, who hold a fundamentalist view of Islam.
Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.