20 killed in Pakistan market suicide blast
quetta — A suicide bomber targeted an open-air market in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on
Friday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens of others, police and hospital officials said.
Shortly after the bombing, struck near a Shia residential area, dozens of angry youths rallied in Quetta, demanding more security from the authorities and the arrest of those behind the attacks.
They also denounced the violence by extremists who have killed hundreds in similar attacks over the past years in Balochistan province, where Quetta is the capital. “It seems people from the Hazara community were the target,” said senior police officer Abdur Razzaq Cheema.
500k Is the rough population of Hazara community in Quetta I was loading a small truck and I heard a huge bang and it seemed as if the earth beneath me had shaken and I fell down
Irfan Khan, A labourer
Each time, there are promises that more will be done to protect them, and each time those promises have failed to materialise
Omar Waraich, Amnesty official
quetta — At least 20 people were killed and 48 wounded on Friday by a powerful suicide blast apparently targeting the Hazara community at a crowded fruit market in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan province, officials said.
Body parts littered the scene and injured people screamed for help as black smoke cloaked the market after the explosion.
A faction of the Taleban claimed the attack. The group said it collaborated with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has been behind numerous bloody attacks in Pakistan. There was no immediate confirmation from LeJ.
Balochistan — which borders Afghanistan and Iran — is Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.
Balochistan home minister Ziaullah Langu gave the toll and confirmed it was a suicide blast, adding that two of the dead were children. Provincial police chief Mohsin Butt said eight Hazara were among the victims.
The Hazara, whose Central Asian features make them easily recognisable, are a soft target for militants. They are so frequently targeted that they are forced to live in two protected enclaves in the city and are given a daily police escort to the market to stock up on supplies.
Police chief Butt said this had happened on Friday. The bomb detonated near a site where produce was being loaded for distribution around the market.
“I was loading a small truck and I heard a huge bang and it seemed as if the earth beneath me had shaken and I fell down,” said Irfan Khan, a labourer, from his hospital bed. “The atmosphere was filled with black smoke and I could not see anything, I could hear people screaming for help and I was also screaming for help.” He said the air was “filled with the stinging smell of burnt human flesh”.
Senior police official Abdul Razaq Cheema said the blast targeted the Hazarganji neighbourhood of Quetta. Hazara make up roughly 500,000 of the city’s 2.3 million people.
Amnesty International said the blast was a “painful reminder” of the many attacks suffered by the Hazara community in Quetta over the years, and called for the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to give them better protection.
“Each time, there are promises that more will be done to protect them, and each time those promises have failed to materialise,” wrote Omar Waraich, Amnesty International’s deputy director for South Asia.