Pakistan mosque bombing kills 31, injures 169
Police said a suicide bomber exploded the bomb at the Shia imambargah Khadijah-tul-Kubra in the Tarlai section of Islamabad. An imambargah is a congregation hall sometimes used for prayers.
Witnesses said they heard sounds of gunfire before the bomb detonated. An emergency was declared, and an appeal for blood donations was sent out, the BBC reported.
Maryam Nawaz, chief minister of neighboring Punjab, said the provincial government had sent 25 ambulances to Islamabad, Dawn reported.
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"Blood banks are fully staffed, and operation theaters are fully equipped to ensure prompt and effective medical care for the injured."
She added that there are "surgical teams, anesthetists, orthopedic and neurosurgical specialists on standby."
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif blamed India and Afghanistan on social media, saying, "it has been proved the terrorist involved in the attack traveled to and from Afghanistan. The collusion between India and Afghanistan is being revealed."
He said security guards "challenged" the attacker, and he began shooting.
"He then blew himself up, standing in the last row of worshippers."
Tallal Chaudhry, minister of State for Interior, told reporters in Islamabad that the attacker was not Afghani but that through forensic tests, they had determined he had traveled to Afghanistan multiple times, Dawn News reported.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed condolences to the victims, according to a statement.
"Targeting innocent civilians is a crime against humanity," Zardari said.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also condemned the "cowardly" attack.
"Targeting places of worship and civilians is a heinous crime against humanity and a blatant violation of Islamic principles," he said.
"Pakistan stands united against terrorism in all its forms," Dar said. "This barbarity will not intimidate us, and extremists will be brought to full account."
Zaheer Abbas told BBC Urdu that he was inside the Khadijatul Kubra imambargah praying when he heard gunshots.
"After that, we bowed and then prostrated, and then there was an explosion," he said. "After which there were injured people lying everywhere."
Syed Ashfaq, caretaker of the mosque who lives next door, also heard gunfire and ran toward the mosque to help.
"By the time I reached it there had already been an explosion," he told the BBC. "Bodies were lying everywhere, some were missing arms, some missing legs. We took the most injured in our own vehicle [to a hospital]."
Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is visiting Pakistan, Dawn reported.
Islamabad saw another suicide attack on Nov. 11 that killed 12 people and injured 36.
75+ dead in Boko Haram Islamist militant raids on Nigerian villages
The 75 "were massacred" Tuesday after the Islamist militants told them to "surrender to extremists who preached a strange doctrine," Kwara Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq said, as reported by the BBC.
Another official said 78 have been buried after the attacks and estimated another 170 dead bodies are to be recovered.
The killings happened in the villages of Woro and Nuku, and 38 others were taken as others fled the area while Boko Haram militants set fire to homes and shops in the villages, Kwara House Assembly member Saidu Baba Ahmed said.
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The attacks started at 5 p.m. local time and lasted for between 3 and 4 hours and were among several carried out across the country over the past several days.
Nigerian officials said they have deployed troops to the area to prevent further attacks.
Officials for Amnesty International Nigeria condemned the attacks and said gunmen killed more than 200 while razing homes and looting shops in the two villages.
Another 21 were killed in an attack on Doma Village in the state of Kwara, Amnesty International Nigeria said.
"This is perhaps one of the deadliest recent attacks in this part of Kwara state that has been consistently attacked by gunmen.
Witnesses told Amnesty International that the "gunmen held a free rein while rounding up young men and entire families and slaughtering them."
The agency said the "manner and time the gunmen took to carry out these attacks shows a stunning absence of any form of security for the protection of lives" and called on Nigerian authorities to do more to protect all people.
It appears there was no interference by government troops and no fear of interference. Is the government of Nigeria complicit in the slaughter?
The gunmen were "sending letters and pamphlets to the community over two weeks" before carrying out the deadly attacks, Amnesty International Nigeria officials said.
"Amnesty International has been documenting attacks on rural communities in the north, and ... authorities have clearly left such communities at the mercy of rampaging gunmen," they added.
The attacks were the deadliest reported in the area in recent months as armed groups increasingly have targeted civilians in north-central and northwest Nigeria in recent months, according to the United Nations.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his "heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and government of Nigeria" in a prepared statement.
Guterres "reiterates the solidarity of the United Nations with the government and people of Nigeria in their efforts to fight terrorism and violent extremism and stresses the importance of bringing the perpetrators to justice," the statement said.
