Pakistan suicide bomber targets police
QUETTA, Pakistan — A suicide bomber blew himself up near a truck carrying police officers on their way to protect polio workers near Quetta on Wednesday, killing a police officer and three family members traveling in a car nearby. The bombing wounded 23 others, mostly police, officials said.
Ghulam Azfer Mehser, a senior police officer, said the attack happened as the police were heading to the polio workers as part of a nationwide vaccination drive launched Monday.
The blast was so powerful that it toppled the truck carrying police officers into a ravine, he said, adding that the bombing also damaged a nearby car carrying members of a family.
He said that the anti-polio campaign will continue even after the bombing.
Pakistani President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other officials in separate statements condemned the attack. It came a day after Pakistani Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khan traveled to Kabul to discuss a range of issues with the Afghan Taliban, including the latest threat from the local Taliban.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan group, or TTP, said the attack in Baluchistan targeted police to avenge the killing of their former spokesperson, Abdul Wali. He was widely known as Omar Khalid Khurasani and was killed in a bombing in Afghanistan’s Paktika province in August. His death was a heavy blow to the group.