Major terror attack foiled in southwest Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces foiled a major terror attack in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing five suicide bombers, the military said.
The target of the attack was a local office of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC).
“An explosive-laden vehicle carrying five suicide bombers tried to enter the FC help centre. Vigilant FC soldiers fired at (the) terrorists and killed them,” the military said in a statement. Four soldiers were injured in the firefight with the attackers, it added.
The failed attack came just hours after a suicide bomber struck an FC convoy in the northwestern city of Nowshera, wounding 10 people.
The two attacks on the FC came a day after Pakistani forces killed Salman Badeni – a notorious Islamist militant wanted for more than 100 murders – on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of the restive Balochistan province.
No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the military said the attempted storming of the FC office in Quetta was a ‘response’ to the killing of Badeni.
Badeni was the provincial commander of the sectarian Islamist group Lashkar-eJhangvi (LeJ), widely considered one of the most violent militant outfits in Pakistan. Sunni extremists like the LeJ consider Shiites to be heretics.
LeJ is blamed for the deaths of hundreds of Shiites in numerous attacks across Pakistan, especially in Balochistan. A number of Islamist militant groups are active in the province, including the Taliban and local Islamic State affiliates. — AFP
Pakistani security personnel gather at the site following an attack by militants in Quetta.