Pakistan suicide blast: 4 killed, 20 injured as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan suicide bomber blows himself up
The motorbike-borne suicide bomber targeted Frontier Constabulary guards in the Mian Ghundi neighbourhood of the city.
FollowA suicide bomber of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan blew himself up in the country’s restive Balochistan province on Sunday, killing four Pakistani paramilitary guards and injuring 20 people in the southwestern city of Quetta.
The motorbike-borne suicide bomber targeted Frontier Constabulary guards in the Mian Ghundi neighbourhood of the city.
Senior police officer Azhar Akram said the attacker had walked toward the checkpoint manned by the paramilitary Frontier Corps on Quetta-Mastung Road, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. He said body parts were found at a distance from the security post after the bombing.
According to the Counter-Terrorism Department of Balochistan, the blast was a "suicide attack" and was carried out near the Sona Khan checkpost.
The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, sending a grim signal that the change of government in Kabul might not end the woes of Pakistan as the country looks towards the Taliban to rein in the TTP rebels who are hiding in Afghanistan, reported AP.
Three died immediately in the blast, with another officer dying later of his wounds, said Azhar Akram, a deputy inspector general of police.
Akram told AFP that 17 guards and two civilians were wounded in the blast. Three are in a critical condition, he said.
According to an AFP report, Quetta is home to approximately 500,000 Hazaras, who mostly live in an ethnic enclave on the edge of the city.
The community has long been targeted by the Islamic State and other militant Sunni groups, who see them as a heretical sect, the report further stated.
A series of bombings carried out by a Pakistani sectarian militant group in 2013 killed over 200 Hazaras in the city.
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