Pak. shrine attack toll rises to 22

Earlier, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti had put the death toll from the bombing at 18.

A Pakistani security personnel and a policeman stand guard at the site of a suicide attack, outside a shrine in Jhal Magsi district in Balochistan province, on Thursday.

The death toll in the suicide attack at a prominent Shia shrine in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province has risen to 22, officials said on Friday.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest when he was stopped by a police officer guarding the Dargah Fatehpur, according to Deputy Commissioner Asadullah Kakar.

The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, took place when there was a heavy rush of devotees who had gathered at the shrine in the village of Jhal Masgi, located about 400 km from Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

Officials said the death toll rose after an under- treatment victims succumbed to their injuries at a hospital in Larkana. Investigations are under way and police have collected evidence from the site of the blast, the official said.