The blast took place during a rally of the conservative Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, known for its ties to hardline political Islam, in the former tribal area of Bajaur, which borders the Afghanistan.
An emergency has been declared at hospitals in Bajaur and nearby areas where most of the injured have been taken, district police officer Nazir Khan said. The seriously injured were transported from Bajaur to hospitals in the provincial capital Peshawar by military helicopters.
A statement from Rescue 1122, a first aid service, put the death toll at 42.
Khan said the explosion, at a convention of JUI-F workers in the town of Khar in Bajaur, injured more than 130 people, many of them seriously.
Provincial Police Chief Akhtar Hayat said Reuters the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber.
Pakistan has seen an upsurge in attacks by Islamist militants since last year when a ceasefire between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamabad broke down. A bomb attack on a mosque in Peshawar killed more than 100 people earlier this year.
While the TTP and its associated groups have been behind the majority of attacks in Pakistan in recent months, the group has distanced itself from Sunday’s bombing, which its spokesman condemned.
The TTP pledges allegiance to the Taliban, but is not directly part of it, in neighboring Afghanistan to the west. Pakistani security forces claim the TTP has sanctuaries in Afghanistan, which the Taliban-led administration denies.
The Afghan administration condemned the explosion in a statement by its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The TTP is not the only militant group carrying out attacks in the area, which has also been hit by a local branch of the Islamic State.
The targeted party, JUI-F, is a major ally of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government, which is preparing for national elections to be held in November.
Sharif condemns the explosion, calling it an attack on Pakistan’s democratic process. He swore that those responsible would be punished.
The US Embassy in Islamabad and former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also condemned the explosion of posts on the X-based messaging platform, formerly known as Twitter.
