By Caroline Davies, Pakistan correspondent & Adam Durbin
In Islamabad and London
At least 35 people have been killed in an explosion in Pakistan during a rally organized by an Islamist party.
The explosion in the northwest Bajaur area, where Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was having a meeting, also injured at least 200 other persons.
The BBC was informed by police that they had discovered evidence suggesting that the explosion may have been a suicide strike.
All injured people have been transferred to hospitals after the rescue effort was finished, according to the police.
Government officials have issued a warning that additional fatalities could occur because many of the injured are in serious condition, and security personnel have blocked off the area.
It is still unclear why the strike occurred.
In the Pakistani tribal district of Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, close to the Afghan border, the town of Khar hosted the JUI-F workers' convention on Sunday.
Ambulances transport injured individuals to hospitals, with others being evacuated by military helicopters to the adjacent city of Peshawar for treatment, according to images shown on local television.
The district hospital is now under a state of emergency, according to the authorities.
While medical facilities struggled to deal with a large number of casualties, several seriously injured persons were waiting in the hallways.
Local authorities told the BBC that Maulana Ziaullah, a regional JUI-F leader, died in the explosion.
A significant religious political party, JUI-F is a member of the coalition that governs Pakistan's parliament.
Fazal-ur-Rehman, the party's leader, has urged Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to start an investigation into the incident.
The political event gave the JUI-F a chance to gather support before an election that is anticipated for later this year.
Although no one has yet claimed responsibility for the incident, the Pakistani branch of the Islamic State (IS) has previously claimed responsibility for multiple strikes in Bajaur this year that were allegedly directed at JUI-F.
The militants claimed responsibility for the murder of a party official in the village of Inayat Killi in June.
The assertion was made by IS on behalf of its "Khorasan Province" (ISKP) branch, which conducts business in Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. In the guise of its "Pakistan Province" branch, the group also claims responsibility for assaults in Pakistan.
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