QUETTA: At least 11 people were killed and 30 injured in a series of attacks in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta yesterday, including a suicide bombing at a rally by a leading religious political party.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) party was leaving a rally in the capital of Pakistan’s restive Baluchistan province — where he had addressed thousands of people — when his car was targeted by a suicide bomber, officials said.
Abdul Razaq Cheema, the city’s police chief said: “It was a suicide attack. One person has been killed and more than 17 injured. Some are in critical condition.”
Rehman, who leads the biggest religious party in parliament, said he believed he was the target. “I was in a bulletproof car and that’s why I survived. There is blood and human flesh on my car,” he told the Geo News TV channel. “My car was badly damaged, almost destroyed. The windscreen of my car was cracked, we received a big shock but me and friends inside the car are safe and alive.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Earlier, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Shias at a fruit and vegetable bazaar on the outskirts of the city, killing eight people ahead of the holy month of Muharram.
“At least nine Hazara Shias were sitting in a minibus after buying vegetables when two gunmen opened fire on them with automatic weapons, killing eight of them and wounding another one,” senior local police official Imran Qureshi said. A rescue worker at the site said the blood-soaked dead bodies had fallen on top of each other, many struck by bullets to the head. They were later moved to an area hospital.
Hours after the market attack, a bomb targeted a convoy of the government paramilitary Frontier Corps in Quetta, killing two passers-by and injuring 12. “This bomb was planted in a motorcycle parked on the Qambrani road. Two passers-by were killed as result of this blast and 12 others were wounded,” Cheema said. AFP
