Pakistan struck by suicide attack on Sufi shrine in Baluchistan

A suicide bombing at a shrine in south-west Pakistan killed 18 people and wounded more than 30 yesterday in the latest sectarian attack in Baluchistan province.

Minority groups in the province are routinely attacked by militant outfits, including ISIL, which has claimed responsibility for several bombings.

A police officer stopped the bomber at the Sufi shrine’s entrance and was among those killed. His action reduced the number of casualties, said Sarfraz Bugti, Baluchistan’s home minister. Local government official Ahmed Aziz Tarrar said 16 people were killed and more than 30 injured.

“We have received 16 bodies at the local hospital and many injured. The severely wounded are being moved to other facilities,” district health official Rukhsani Magsi said.

ISIL claimed the attack. The shrine in the district of Jhal Magsi was packed with devotees.

Such attacks fuel concern about security for projects in the US$57 billion (Dh209bn) China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a planned transport and energy route from western China to Baluchistan’s deepwater port of Gwadar.

The province has been affected by violence on two fronts for more than a decade: on one, the Taliban and Islamist militants; on the other, Baluchistan separatists.

An ISIL suicide bomber killed 52 people at a Baluchistan Sufi shrine in November. In February, ISIL attacked a Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, killing 83 people.