QUETTA: A suicide bomber yesterday killed 38 people and wounded more than 50, mostly policemen attending a funeral ahead of Eid Al Fitr.
The bomber struck as officers gathered to pay their respects to a colleague shot dead hours before in Quetta, capital of the troubled province of Baluchistan.
Fayaz Sumbal, a Deputy Inspector General of Police and one of the most senior officers in Quetta, and a son of the imam of the mosque at the police headquarters were among the dead, Dr Syed Sarwar Shah said at a hospital.
Mushtaq Sukhera, police chief of Baluchistan, said 21 of the dead were policemen. “The death toll may rise because the condition of most of the injured is critical,” he told a news conference.
Asked if the attacker might have been helped by an insider in the police force, he said: “Yes, we will investigate the involvement of any insider.”
“Our brave officers embraced martyrdom but we will continue sacrificing our lives for the security of our motherland.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Quetta sits on the frontline of militant violence, a Baluch separatist insurgency and violence targeting the Shia minority.
“I was inside the mosque and we were lining up for the funeral prayers when a big blast took place. I came out and saw injured and dead bodies,” policeman Mohammad Hafiz said. “I have no words to explain what I’ve seen. It was horrible.”
Another witness said he saw bodies scattered everywhere. “Most bodies were beyond recognition. We collected body parts and flesh. Those who are killing people, even inside mosques, are not human beings, they are beasts. They are not Muslims, they have nothing to do with Islam. Allah will never pardon them.”
The blast capped a bloody Ramadan in Pakistan, where at least 11 attacks have killed more than 120 people. On Wednesday a bomb killed eight people at the end of a football tournament in Karachi, many of them young fans watching the game from the stands. Agencies
