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

(Image credit: Banaras Khan/Getty Images)

published 12 November 2016

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.

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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.

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