Bomb attack kills dozens at Pakistan shrine

The attack claimed by Daesh targeted a crowd near a Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan's Sindh province.

Pakistan Rangers have been deployed throughout the city and have also shut down all shrines from public access.
TRT World and Agencies

Pakistan Rangers have been deployed throughout the city and have also shut down all shrines from public access.

A suicide bomber attacked a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan on Thursday, police said, with local television reporting that at least 75 people were killed and dozens more wounded in the latest in a wave of bombings this week.

The Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, which came shortly after another Daesh bomb attack killed at least 48 people in Baghdad, Iraq.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed that security forces would track down the perpetrators of the attack, according to Pakistani state TV.

"Each drop of the nation's blood shall be avenged, and avenged immediately." Pakistan's army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, said in a statement.

A suicide bomber entered the shrine as crowds massed on Thursday, a statement from the Sindh police spokesman said.

People traditionally gather at the shrine on Thursday evenings to pay their respects to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a 12th century Sufi philosopher-poet of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.

(AFP/Getty Images)

The blast is the latest in a string of attacks to rock Pakistan over the past week.

In a statement, the provincial government said all shrine's in Lahore have been closed to the general public while sensitive locations and the airport will be under the protection of Pakistan Rangers, an elite paramilitary unit.

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