Suicide attack kills 38, 50 injured at Quetta policeman’s funeral
DIG operations Fiaz Ahmed Sumbal and DSP Head Quarter Shamsur Rehman are among the dead. SHO Mohib Ullah was killed, while his four children and driver sustained injuries, during a firing incident in Alamu Chowk, Quetta, earlier on Thursday.
On the eve of Id, at least 38 people, including senior police officers, were killed on Thursday in a bomb blast targeting the funeral of a police official killed hours earlier in Pakistan’s Quetta city.
“DIG ( deputy inspector general) operations Fiaz Ahmed Sumbal and DSP ( deputy superintendent police) Head Quarter Shamsur Rehman are among the dead,” said a police official.
“The blast occurred as police officials and other people were reaching a mosque for the funeral prayers of Station House Officer ( SHO) Mohib Ullah who was shot dead early this morning,” he added.
“It was a suicide attack. Over 50 people were wounded in the blast. Some of them are critical,” the official said.
SHO Mohib Ullah was killed, while his four children and driver sustained injuries, during a firing incident in Alamu Chowk, Quetta, earlier on Thursday. “Mohib Ullah was going to the market along with his children, when unidentified assailants, in a car, opened fire at their police mobile and escaped,” the police official said. According to Bomb Disposal Squad 8kg explosive material was used in the suicide blast.
Around 300 to 400 people, including DIG Operations Fayyaz Sumbol, Balochistan police chief and the - city police and the city police chief were attending the funeral. A police official said the bomber detonated his explosives just before the funeral service was about to start. Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have condemned the incident and have directed the authorities to arrest the culprits at the earliest. Prime Minister Sharif said the government rejects terrorism in all its forms and will not allow the terrorists to dictate terms.
Terrorists had already threatened to target main cities including Quetta on Id.