The death toll from a suicide bombing that hit southwestern Pakistan on Friday has risen to 149, making it the second most lethal attack in the country’s history, officials said on Sunday.
The attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group was the latest in a series of deadly blasts at various election campaign events ahead of national polls on July 25.
A suicide bomber detonated as local politician Siraj Raisani spoke to a crowd of supporters in southwestern Mastung district on Friday. Raisani was among those killed.
The latest toll topped that of a 2007 bomb attack in Karachi targeting former Premier Benazir Bhutto, which killed 139 people.
The country’s worst-ever attack was an assault on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in 2014 that left more than 150 people dead.
Authorities published advertisements in local newspapers on Monday seeking information on bodies taken home directly after the latest attack and buried without informing police, meaning that the official death toll could rise again.