Daesh strikes, 25 killed in Pakistan
quetta — A bomb exploded next to a convoy of the deputy chairman of the Pakistan Senate on Friday in the violence-plagued province of Balochistan, killing at least 25 people, officials said.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the bombing. The group’s Amaq news agency said a bomber wearing an explosive vest carried out the attack.
At least 35 people were wounded in the blast near the town of Mastung, 50km from the provincial capital of Quetta. Television footage showed a vehicle mangled by the blast.
Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, the deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament, said minutes after the explosion he believed he was the target and he had sustained minor injuries.
“There are many casualties as there were many people in the convoy,” he said by telephone. Haideri is a member of Jamiat e Ulema Islam, a right-wing political party that is part of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s coalition government.
District health official Sher Ahmed Satakzai said the death toll had risen to 25. —
quetta — A bomb exploded next to a convoy of the deputy chairman of the Senate on Friday in the violence-plagued province of Balochistan, killing at least 25 people, officials said.
At least 35 people were wounded in the blast near the town of Mastung, 50km from the provincial capital of Quetta. Television footage showed a vehicle mangled by the blast.
Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, the deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament, told Reuters minutes after the explosion that he believed he was the target and he had sustained minor injuries.
“There are many casualties as there were many people in the convoy,” he said by telephone.
Middle East-based terrorist group Daesh claimed it had carried out the deadly bomb attack.
The group’s Amaq news agency said a bomber wearing an explosive vest was responsible for the attack, which officials in Pakistan said killed at least 25 people.
The bomber struck soon after Abdul Ghafoor Haideri’s convoy left a madrassa in the town of Mastung, according to local government official, Munir Raisani.
The area has been a hotbed of militant activity in the past, although most of the previous attacks near Mastung have been of sectarian nature carried out by the violent radical group Lashkar-eJhangvi.
Haideri is a member of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a right-wing Islamist political party that is part of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s coalition government. District health official Sher Ahmed Satakzai said the death toll had risen to 25 and 10 were in critical condition in hospital. Security in Pakistan has improved a lot since a crackdown on militancy began in 2014, but a fresh wave of attacks that left more than 100 people dead in February has increased pressure on Sharif’s government.
Mastung police official Ghazanfar Ali Shah said the convoy appeared to have been hit by a suicide bomber, adding Haideri’s driver was among those killed.
The senator, who is being treated in hospital, was on his way back to Quetta after distributing graduation certificates to students who had graduated from a madrassa, or religious academy. — Reuters, AP