The death toll from a large blast at a mosque in Pakistan has risen to 59 as the government vowed to find the perpetrators and accused India's intelligence agency of being involved.
Wasim Baig, the spokesperson for the health department in Balochistan province, where the attack took place, said on Saturday seven more people had died in hospital since Friday, which had caused the rise in the death toll, adding that more patients remained in critical condition.
Friday's blast tore through a mosque in Mastung in the southern province after a bomber detonated his explosives near a police vehicle where people were gathering for a procession to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
Pakistani officials have long claimed that India sponsors violent groups in Pakistan — claims India has always denied.
"Civil, military and all other institutions will jointly strike against the elements involved in the Mastung suicide bombing," Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told media in Balochistan's capital, Quetta.
"RAW is involved in the suicide attack," he added, referring to India's Research & Analysis Wing [RAW] intelligence agency.
"All major incidents that occurred in Balochistan before this one…they were all unearthed — India's RAW was behind all these, and the forces who want to destabilise Pakistan," he said.
India's Foreign Ministry and a government spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TTP denies responsibility
A second attack on Friday at a mosque in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had killed at least five people.
Police on Saturday filed a report to launch an investigation, saying they had sent DNA from the suicide bomb attacker to be analysed.
No group has claimed responsibility for either attack.
A surge in militant attacks in Pakistan's western provinces has cast a shadow on election preparations and public campaigning in the run-up to January's national vote, but until now, the attacks had mostly targeted security forces.
The Pakistani Taliban [or TTP], responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan since the terror group's formation in 2007, denied responsibility for Friday's blasts.
Condemnations
Most of the dead were buried in local graveyards and the remains of others were sent to hometowns, officials said.
Body parts recovered from the site of bombing are undergoing DNA testing to determine if they belonged to the suspected perpetrator or perpetrators, they said.
President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Cabinet ministers, former lawmakers, heads of political parties, social and religious groups, and members of civil society also widely condemned the bombing and loss of precious lives.
The members of the UN Security Council also condemned "the heinous and cowardly suicide terrorist attacks in Pakistan" and "underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice," according to a statement.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said such attacks "show terrorists have no other goal than to create division among Muslims," according to a statement reported by state TV.
The US Embassy in Islamabad posted a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that said: "Pakistani people deserve to gather and celebrate their faith without the fear of terror attacks."
