Taleban leader’s brother among 5 killed in blast
quetta — The brother of the leader of the Afghan Taleban was among at five people killed in a bomb blast at a mosque in Pakistan on Friday, two Taleban sources said.
Police said more than 20 people were wounded and the death toll could rise. The imam of the mosque, 25km from the southwestern city of Quetta, was among those killed, police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast which comes as the Taleban and the United States are in the final stages of negotiations on an agreement letting America end its longest war and withdraw its troops from neighbouring Afghanistan.
Taleban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada was not in the mosque when the bomb went off but his younger brother, Hafiz Ahmadullah, was among those killed. The Taleban leader’s son was wounded, one of the sources said.
Pakistani police did not confirm the identity of any of the victims.
“It was a timed device planted under the wooden chair of the prayer leader,” said Abdul Razzaq Cheema, chief of police in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.
One of the sources, who visited the site after the blast, said security at the mosque was always very tight. Pakistan has promised to help the United States end the Afghan war and both US and Taleban negotiators have recently reported significant progress in their talks in Qatar.
But Friday’s blast will raise concerns about prospects for peace.
The Taleban, in exchange for a US troop withdrawal, are expected to guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used for international terrorism.
Mineral and gas rich Balochistan is at the centre of the $60 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is itself part of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project.
Violence in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has fuelled concerns about the security of projects such as a planned energy link from western China to Pakistan’s southern port of Gwadar
Militants still retain the ability to carry out attacks, including on major urban centres and tightlyguarded targets, and analysts have long warned that Pakistan is yet to tackle the root causes of extremism. —