At least 36 people were killed and more than 30 others were injured in a suicide bombing carried out by the Taliban at a mosque in southwest Pakistan's Payee Khan village, PTI reported. The explosion took place during the weekly Friday prayers. The local administration has imposed a curfew in the area. Security forces are looking for other people involved in the attack. Around 200 people were inside the mosque when the bomb exploded.

Jamat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The suicide bomber allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" before he detonated the bomb, Reuters reported. In a statement, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the incident, which he called a "cowardly attack by terrorists [who] cannot shatter the government's resolve to eliminate terrorism from the country."

Officials said the village is located in the "lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas" region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The area's rugged landscape has reportedly made it a hideout for groups like al-Qaeda and Taliban. According to a report by Al Jazeera, Islamabad's armed forces launched an operation to eradicate the presence of armed militants in the area in 2014, as thousands of residents have lost their lives in insurgent attacks over the last decade.