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Pakistan on Alert After Islamic State Attack

At least 80 were killed in the attack Thursday and more than 200 injured.

SEHWAN SHARIF, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces killed dozens of suspected militants on Friday, a day after Islamic State claimed a suicide bombing that killed more than 70 worshippers at a Sufi shrine in the latest of a series of bloody attacks across the country.

The bombing at the famed Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in southern Sindh province was Pakistan's deadliest attack in two years, killing at least 77 people and underlining the threat of militant groups like the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State.

With authorities facing angry criticism for failing to tighten security before the bomber struck, analysts warned that the wave of violence pointed to a major escalation in Islamist militants' attempts to destabilize the region.

"This is a virtual declaration of war against the state of Pakistan," said Imtiaz Gul, head of the independent Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad.

The bombings over five days have hit all four of Pakistan's provinces and two major cities, killing nearly 100 people and shaking a nascent sense that the worst of the country's militant violence may be in the past.

A series of military operations against insurgent groups operating in Pakistan had encouraged hopes that their leaders were scattered.

"But this has led to a degree of complacency within our civil-military leadership that perhaps they have completely destroyed these elements, or broken their back," Gul said.

If so, that impression has been shattered by the events of recent days.

BLOOD AND TEARS

At Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, the white marble floor was still marked by blood on Friday, and a pile of abandoned shoes and slippers was heaped in the courtyard, many of them belonging to victims.

Outside, protesters shouted slogans at police, who they said had failed to protect the shrine.

"I wish I could have been here and died in the blast last night," a devastated Ali Hussain told Reuters, sitting on the floor of the shrine.

He said that local Sufis had asked for better security after a separate bombing this week had killed 13 people in the eastern city of Lahore, but added: "No one bothered to secure this place".