43 killed, 100 wounded in explosion at Muslim shrine in Pakistan

Ambulances in Pakistan
(Image credit: Banaras Khan/Getty Images)

At least 43 people were killed and 100 more wounded in an attack on a Muslim shrine in the Balochistan province of Pakistan on Saturday. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombing, calling it "a martyrdom attack." The death toll is expected to continue to rise, in part because the blast site's remote location makes it difficult for emergency medical services to transport the injured.

The explosion occurred at the Shah Noorani shrine, where hundreds were gathered to watch a nightly ritual dance at sunset. The shrine belongs to the Sufi sect, a mystical branch of Islam believed by many extremists, including ISIS, to be heretical.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.