Security forces said Friday they had killed more than 100 "terrorists" after 88 people died in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group on a Sufi shrine which stoked fears of a fresh surge in militancy. The devastating blast came after a series of bloody extremist assaults this week, including a powerful Taliban suicide bomb in Lahore which killed 13 people and wounded dozens.
Military later said operations were in progress across the country. "Over 100 terrorists have been killed since last night," it said, adding others had been detained. Police Friday cordoned off the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a 13th century saint, in Sehwan, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) north-east of financial hub Karachi. The centuries-old shrine's white floor was smeared with blood, scattered with shoes, shawls, and baby bottles.
At 3.30 am the shrine's caretaker stood among the carnage and defiantly rang its bell, a daily ritual that he vowed to continue, telling AFP he will "not bow down to terrorists". Health officials said the number of people killed in the shrine blast had jumped to 88, including at least 20 children, making it the deadliest attack in Pakistan since a 2014 assault on a Peshawar school.
"I think they (IS) are capable of doing this" with help from home-grown groups, security expert Amir Rana said of the shrine bombing, as analyst Imtiaz Gul warned the group would claim more such attacks. Gul also warned there are "visible signs" that factions of the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or Pakistani Taliban), which is distinct from the Afghan Taliban, are regrouping after a military crackdown. TTP faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed the Lahore attack on Monday, days after it announced a fresh offensive. Two members of a bomb disposal team in Quetta, capital of southwestern Balochistan province, were killed the same day defusing a device there.
'Intense' wave of attacks Rana predicted the "intense" wave of TTP attacks would continue, saying security forces had failed to crack the militants' operational infrastructure, especially in cities. But both the military and the foreign office said the recent attacks had been carried out from sanctuaries in Afghanistan, and that Kabul had been asked to take action. Neither referred specifically to the IS claim.
Security officials said at least 18 terrorists had been killed in Sindh overnight, and 13 more in the country's northwest. "The government should identify and punish these terrorists," Ghulam Shabbir Bhatti, a resident of Sehwan, said. "Sunnis, Shias, Hindus, ppl from all faiths visit Sehwan... This is an attack on our identity & culture," wrote Twitter user Zahraa Saifullah. Sufism, a mystic Islamic order that believes in living saints, worships through music and is viewed as heretical by some hard-line groups. IS has targeted Sufi shrines in Pakistan previously, killing 52 at a shrine in Balochistan last year.