Bomb Attack Kills 11 in Pakistan's Quetta

Source : Naharnet

A bomb tore through a Pakistan security forces' vehicle on Thursday, killing 11 people and wounding dozens more in a crowded part of the southwestern city of Quetta, officials said.

The vehicle belonging to the paramilitary Frontier Corps was completely destroyed along with about seven other vehicles, an AFP reporter said.

Pools of blood, smashed window panes, charred pieces of metal and merchandise from stree stalls littered the roadside after the blast.

"Frontier Corps personnel were the target because the bomb was planted underneath their vehicle," said senior police investigator Hamid Shakeel.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack.

Quetta is the capital of the province of Baluchistan, one of the most deprived parts of Pakistan, which suffers from Islamist militancy, a separatist insurgency and sectarian violence

"According to our information, 11 people were killed and 27 injured in the blast. We will be able to tell you after some time what kind of device it was, but it was a crowded place," said Quetta police chief Mir Zubair Mehmood.

Allah Dad, a local shopkeeper who sells blankets and small bags, said he heard a deafening blast.

"I went out of my shop and saw a thick cloud of dust. I was very scared and saw people screaming in panic. There were dead bodies and injured people shouting for help," he told AFP.

Bomb disposal official Abdul Razzaq said the bomb, packed with 20 to 25 kilograms (44 to 55 pounds) of explosives, was detonated by remote control.

TV stations broadcast harrowing images of casualties being stretchered from the scene, heavily damaged vehicles and survivors picking through the debris.

It was the worst attack in Baluchistan since a car bomb killed 19 Shiite Muslim pilgrims en route to Iran in Mastung district on December 30.

Shiites make up around 20 percent of Pakistan's 180-million strong population and activists say they are increasingly being targeted by extremist Sunni factions who operate with impunity.

Baluch rebels rose up in 2004, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural mineral, oil and gas deposits.

The province borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Gunmen kill four in Pakistan's southwest

Sources : thetelegraph.com.au

GUNMEN have shot dead four Shi'ite Muslims, in a fresh sectarian attack in Pakistan's troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan.

All those killed on Tuesday ran junk and scrap shops in Kabari Market in Quetta, the provincial capital where sectarian and separatist violence is common.

"It was a sectarian attack. Gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on them and drove away," Asif Ghafoor, a senior police official, told AFP.

The province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is plagued by sectarian violence between the minority Shi'ite and majority Sunni community, as well as by Taliban attacks and a separatist insurgency.

Riasat Ali, another police official confirmed the incident and told AFP that the victims were critically injured and died on their way to hospital.

Sectarian violence involving Sunni and Shi'ites, who account for around 20 per cent of the population, has killed thousands of people since the late 1990s.