Thursday’s terrorist attack at Sehwan Sharif, that killed over 72 people and injured more than 200, was not the first in the history of Pakistan as it has witnessed so many terrorist attacks on shrines.
Since the Pakistan has joined the United States and its allies in war against terrorism, it became a prime target of terrorists who also targeted shrines and killed hundreds of innocent people.
On March 19, 2005, Pakistan observed its first attack on shrine in which terrorists targeted Pir Rakhel Shah Shrine in a remote village of Fatehpur in Jhal Magsi. At least 35 people were killed and dozens of others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up.
Just after the two months of Fatehpur tragedy, on May 27, 2005, the shrine of Bari Imam was rocked with a suicide blast in which 18 people killed and more than 80 were injured.
On July 1, 2010, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the Data Ganj Bakhsh shrine. The incident happened when a large of devotees were gathered on a Thursday night, killing at least 40 people and injuring 170 others. The first explosion took place in the basement reserved for ablution and the second in front of the shrine’s main gate.
October 2010 was the month when two sufi shrines were attacked by terrorists. Two suicide bombers attacked at Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s Shrine in Karachi on October 7, which killed eight people and injured more than 60. On October 25, a bomb exploded at Baba Farid Ganjshakar’s Shrine in Pakpattan in which six people lost their lives while as many as 100 people were injured.
On April 3, 2011, at least 50 people were killed and 70 others were injured when two suicide bombers struck outside the shrine of the sufi Ahmed Sultan, popularly known as Sakhi Sarwar, in Dera Ghazi Khan.
Three people were killed and more than 27 others were injured on February 25, 2013, in a bomb attack at Dargah Ghulam Shah Ghazi in the village of Maari near Shikarpur district, Sindh.
A blast at Nangay Shah shrine in Islamabad injured 61 on June 21, 2014.
Last year on November 12, at least 65 people were killed and over 100 others were injured when a suicide bomber struck Shah Noorani Shrine in Khuzdar district of Balochistan.
