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Empty seats, discarded shoes remain after Pakistan bomb kills 54

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Agence France-Presse

<p>KHAR, Pakistan - Blood-stained chairs, scattered ball bearings and shoes shed by the dead, wounded and panicked bore testimony Monday to the carnage caused by a suicide bombing at a Pakistan political event.</p><p>At least 54 people were killed, including 23 children, on Sunday when a blast ripped through a gathering of Islamic Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) party members in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.</p><p>The marquee hoisted in the town of Khar lay mangled and charred the morning after the explosion, partly collapsed onto blood-soaked carpets with around 400 upended red chairs strewn about.</p><p>&quot;Upon arriving at the scene, I was confronted with a devastating sight,&quot; Khar resident Fazal Aman, 29, told AFP on Monday.</p><p>&quot;Lifeless bodies scattered on the ground while people cried out for help.&quot;</p><p>Party paraphernalia, including hats and scarves in JUI-F&#x27;s black-and-white branding, were abandoned and trampled into the dusty ground, some flecked with dried blood.</p><p>The first funerals for the victims got underway on Monday, including for a pair of cousins aged 16 and 17 where young boys wept by coffins.</p><p>&quot;These two were very serious and down-to-earth individuals in our family,&quot; said 24-year-old shopkeeper Najeeb Ullah. &quot;This is a great injustice on our land.&quot;</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/07/30/23/death-toll-rises-to-at-least-10-in-thai-warehouse-explosion">Death toll rises to at least 10 in Thai warehouse explosion</a></li></ul><div><strong>MOUND OF SANDALS</strong></div><p>Remnants of human flesh and hair could be seen as far as 30 meters (100 feet) from a shattered stage, the apparent epicenter of the blast near Khar&#x27;s main bazaar.</p><p>Gulistan Khan, a 40-year-old farmer being treated at a nearby hospital, said he was in the third row when the bomb detonated as local JUI-F leaders arrived to crowds chanting slogans.</p><p>&quot;I was thrown backwards as if lifted off the ground,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;The blast was powerful. Flames coming out were very high so I couldn&#x27;t see anything.&quot;</p><p>A mound of about 40 sandals and shoes had been piled in the shade behind a cordon of yellow police tape as zebra-striped JUI-F flags fluttered in the breeze.</p><p>Investigators in rubber gloves and face masks picked through the scene on Monday morning, one using a trowel to scoop up a sample from a dark patch on the stage floor.</p><p>The site was swarmed by security forces carrying assault rifles and surrounding roads were peppered with police checkpoints.</p><p>Regional counter-terrorism deputy inspector general Sohail Khalid told AFP the bomber used around 40 kilograms (90 pounds) of explosives, bound up with ball bearings to cause maximum carnage.</p><p>The Islamic State group on Monday claimed responsibility for the attack. The local IS chapter has recently targeted JUI-F, a key government coalition partner led by a firebrand cleric.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kPhcteeGI6c?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>