Category: Terrorism

Security forces on Monday killed the mastermind of the Quetta Civil Hospital bombing along with four other high-profile militants during an operation in Balochistan’s Pishin district, said Balochistan’s Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti.

“Jehangir Badini, mastermind behind the attack on Quetta’s Civil Hospital was killed during the operation,” said Bugti.

Bugti was talking to the media at a press conference in Quetta.

The militants were involved in a series of terrorist acts, including the attack at Hazara women and the murder of Barrister Amanullah Achakzai, the principal of University of Balochistan’s law college.

“So far three of the five terrorists have been identified,” the home minister said.
Balochistan Police Chief Ahsan Mehboob and other high-ups also flanked him during the press conference.

Security forces also claimed to have recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition from the possession of the militants.

“Security forces recovered 30 to 40 kilogrammes of explosives, four suicide jackets and other weapons,” said Bugti.

One suspect was detained during the operation and was being interrogated by security forces.

The suicide bomber, who exploded himself in the hospital in Quetta on Aug 8, was also identified with the help of DNA tests.

His name was Ahmed Ali and he was a resident of Quetta, Bugti added.

Ali had targeted the emergency services ward at Quetta’s Civil Hospital, killing at least 70 people and leaving scores injured.

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) splinter group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), had claimed responsibility for the bombing, which occurred at the gates of the building housing the emergency ward.

The bomber struck as more than 100 mourners, mostly lawyers and journalists, crowded into the emergency department to accompany the body of Advocate Bilal Anwar Kasi.

Quetta, Nov 13: A suicide bomber detonated his vest in the midst of devotees at a packed shrine in a remote area of Khuzdar district Saturday evening, killing at least 52 and maiming more than 100. Officials fear the death toll might go up as rescuers were scrambling to reach the shrine, located in the dirt-poor mountainous region where medical facilities are limited.

The teenage bomber targeted a crowd of devotees performing dhamaal (devotional dance) at the shrine of Sufi saint Shah Noorani, some 750 kilometres south of provincial capital Quetta. “The bomber appeared to be 14 to 16 years old,” said Muhammad Hashim Ghalzai, the commissioner of Kalat division, of which Khuzdar is a district.

At least 45 dead, over 100 injured in Khuzdar’s Shah Noorani shrine explosion

SSP Jafar Khan said that around 1,000 devotees were present in the shrine when the bomber detonated the explosives strapped to his body. Provincial Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti confirmed 43 fatalities, though he could not provide a precise figure for those injured.

Rescue officials, however, confirmed to The Express Tribune that at least 50 devotees had been killed and more than 100 wounded in the deadly blast. They added that the casualties included a number of women and children.

According to witnesses and survivors, the bombing took place in a place reserved for the daily ritual of dhamaal. “Every day at sunset, there is a dhamaal session here and a large number of devotees turn up to perform the devotional dance to drumbeats,” he told The Express Tribune by phone.

The custodian of the shrine, Nawaz Ali, said 1,000 to 1,500 devotees participated in the dance on the night between Saturday and Sunday.

Chief military spokesperson Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa said troops and medical teams had been dispatched but that “difficult terrain and long distance” were hampering their progress.

He said that 20 ambulances and 50 soldiers were about to reach the site, while a further 45 ambulances and 100 troops were also on their way, along with medical teams. A military helicopter would attempt evacuations at night, he added, but medical teams could not access the area by plane as there were no air strips close by.

Balochistan government spokesman Anwarul Kakar said Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri was personally monitoring the situation.

He added that the casualties were being ferried to hospitals in the nearby industrial town of Hub and the port city of Karachi, where a state of emergency has been declared.

Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo said the suicide bombing could be a reprisal for the killing of a senior commander of a banned militant organisation. Jundullah chief Saqib, alias Arif alias Anjum Abbas, was taken down in a gunfight with security forces in Hub on Friday. His wife and nine-year-old son were also injured in the clash.

The carnage came a day before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was scheduled to flag off the first shipment of trade goods from Gwadar port to international markets, marking the historic launch of trade activity through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“Balochistan has become frontline state to bear the cost imposed on Pakistan for CPEC and India’a non-conventional warfare,” Jan Achakzai, special assistant to the chief minister, wrote on Twitter while commenting on the shrine bombing. However, Ports and Shipping Minister Bezenjo believes it could be linked to sectarianism and not CPEC.

A woman mourns the death of relative in a mortuary in Karachi on November 12, 2016, following the arrival of those killed in bombing at a Sufi shrine

Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti, who briefed the media on the deadly blast in Gwadar, said that the provincial government has no helicopters to ferry the casualties from the site. “It’s not possible to fly helicopters for rescue in pitch darkness,” he added. “We have sent ambulances to the site.”

Chief Minister Zehri, who was in Gwadar for Sunday’s CPEC ceremony, directed that all available resources be utilised to ferry the injured to hospitals. “Terrorists cannot deter us with such attacks. Action against them will continue unabated,” he said while strongly condemning the bloody attack.

President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the bombing in separate statements. “The government is determined to eliminate terrorism and extremists from the country,” Mamnoon said in a statement expressing sympathy with the victims and their families.

A statement from Sharif’s office said the prime minister called for the “best medical treatment” to be given to the wounded

At least 30 people were killed and 70 were injured on Saturday in an explosion at the shrine of Shah Norani in Khuzdar district of Balochistan, DawnNews reported.

“30 people have been killed and 70 injured in the blast including women and children,” said Tehsildar Javed Iqbal. He added women and children are among the casualties.

The explosion took place at the spot where the dhamaal is performed, within the premises of the shrine.

Security forces have reached the spot of the incident. Emergency services are facing difficulty in reaching the site of the incident due to its remote location and poor communication infrastructure. The shrine is also located in hilly terrain, further adding to the difficulties being faced by emergency services.

No group has yet taken responsibility of the attack.

“People who are critically injured in the blast will be transported to Karachi,” said Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti.

No major hospital is located near the shrine, and the injured will be shifted to Karachi for further treatment. Reportedly the injured are being shifted in private vehicles.

While answering a question regarding security measures in Balochistan, Bugti said “If there is security lapse on part of the state, those responsible will be held accountable”.

The shrine is frequented by a large number of devotees on Friday, and is visited by people from across the country. Iranian nationals also frequent the shrine.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has expressed his grief over the killing of innocents and condemned the blast at the shrine of Shah Noorani.

Earlier attacks
In October, heavily-armed militants wearing suicide vests stormed a police academy in Quetta, killing at least 61 people and wounding at least 117.

Three gunmen burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters home to some 700 recruits, and sent terrified young men aged between 15 and 25 fleeing.

Communication intercepts showed the attack was carried out by Al-Alimi faction of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) militant group.

In August, a suicide bomber targeted the emergency services ward at Quetta’s Civil Hospital killing at least 70 people and leaving scores injured, majority of those killed were lawyers.

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) splinter group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), had claimed responsibility for the bombing which occurred at the gates of the building housing the emergency ward.

Balochistan has been experiencing incidents of violence and targeted killings for over a decade. More than 1,400 incidents targeting the minority Shia and Hazara community have taken place in the province during the past 15 years.

The largest province of the country by area, is home to a low-level insurgency by ethnic Baloch separatists. Al Qaeda-linked and sectarian militants also operate in the region. The province shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

QUETTA, Pakistan — Survivors of a Monday night attack that killed 61 people at a Pakistani police academy described chaotic scenes of gunfire and explosions, with militants shooting anyone they saw and cadets running for their lives and jumping from windows and rooftops.

A Taliban splinter group and an affiliate of the Islamic State group made competing claims of responsibility for the four-hour siege late Monday at the Police Training College on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta.

Most of the dead and the 123 wounded were recruits and cadets, said Wasay Khan, a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps. Of the three militants who carried out the attack, two blew themselves up with explosive vests and the third was killed by army gunfire, he added.

As the nation reeled and sought to understand how militants were able to carry out such violence, many Pakistanis were reminded of a bloody 2014 attack by the Taliban on an army-run school in Peshawar in which more than 150 people, mostly children, were killed.

Broadcasters on Tuesday showed the aftermath of the attack on the Quetta academy: scorched windows and floors littered with the shoes of the dead and wounded.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif rushed to the scene to meet with survivors, who spoke of the horrors of the surprise attack on about 700 cadets, trainees, instructors and other staff that began about 11:30 p.m.

Cadet Asif Hussain said he had been asleep when gunshots broke out.

“We hid ourselves beneath cots. We had in our mind that if we didn’t lock ourselves inside the hall, they will kill us,” he said.

The attackers kicked at their door but failed to open it, Hussain said. The gunmen instead fired on them from a window, wounding two cadets before moving to a nearby dorm.

Shortly after entering, one of the attackers detonated his vest inside a hall after firing at cadets.

In the chaos, cadets and trainers ran for their lives, jumping through windows and off rooftops to try to escape.
Troops arrived and “it gave us confidence that we are safe now,” Hussain said.

Another recruit, his face covered in blood, told a TV station that the gunmen shot at anyone they saw.
“I ran away, just praying God might save me,” he said.

Another witness, Faisal Khan, said he had been chatting with friends when the shooting began.
“We closed the main door and switched off lights,” he said.

While most of the casualties were from the academy, some of the soldiers who responded to the assault also were killed, said Shahzada Farhat, a police spokesman in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

The Islamic State group posted a claim of responsibility on the group’s media arm, the Arabic-language Aamaq news agency. The claim was not confirmed by Pakistani officials and IS did not offer any previously unknown details about the attack.

A little-known breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, called the Hakimullah group, also claimed responsibility.

In addition, Maj. Gen. Sher Afgan, head of the Pakistani paramilitary force that is primarily responsible for Baluchistan province, said the attackers had received instructions from commanders in neighboring Afghanistan and were most likely from the banned militant group Lashker-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi, which is affiliated with al-Qaida and the Taliban. The Sunni militant group has mainly targeted minority Shiite Muslims whom its members consider to be infidels.

Pakistani officials said they had received intelligence reports that militants had entered Baluchistan province, but there was no indication of possible targets.

Earlier, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, without naming Afghanistan, said enemies of Pakistan were planning attacks in Pakistan from a neighboring country.

Kabul condemned the attack and dismissed the allegations that the assault was planned from bases inside Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan is the biggest victim of terrorism and denounces all terrorist attacks,” said Mohammad Haroon Chakhansuri, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Pakistan maintains that militants fleeing army operations in its tribal regions regularly flee over the border and find safe haven in Afghanistan. For his part, Ghani has criticized Pakistan, saying it has provided shelter to the Taliban, and in particular, the violent Haqqani network.

For over a decade, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-intensity insurgency by nationalist and separatist groups demanding a bigger share in the regional resources.

Pakistan has carried out several military operations against militants in its lawless tribal regions near Afghanistan, including a major push that began in mid-2014 in North Waziristan, a militant base. The militants have killed tens of thousands of people, seeking to install their own harsh brand of Islamic law.

Later Tuesday, the flag-draped coffins of the slain cadets and troops began being moved from Quetta to their families for burial.

One of the dead, army Capt. Rooh Ullah, was given Pakistan’s fourth-highest military award for killing one of the militants before he was slain. Sharif, the army chief, attended a service for him in Quetta before the body was flown to his hometown in the northwest.

Ullah’s father told a local TV station that he was proud his son died a “martyr.”

In Islamabad, minority Christians lit candles for those killed. They chanted slogans condemning violence and vowing to support the victims.

At least 35 security personnel were martyred, and over 100 others injured as terrorists stormed a police training centre on the edge of the provincial capital late Monday night.

Three terrorists opened entered the New Sariab Police Training College, some 13 kilometres away from Quetta city. The terrorists headed straight for the hostel where around 250 police recruits were sleeping.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti told reporters assembled at the
site early Tuesday that the sprawling compound had been attacked by three militants equipped with suicide jackets, revising down an earlier estimate of “five to six” assailants.

“They first targeted the watch tower sentry, and after exchanging fire killed him and were able to enter the academy grounds,” he said. “At least 20 were killed but this figure isn’t final – we’ll confirm it in the morning,” he said, putting the provisional number of injured at 65.

He added, “Frontier Corps’ Quick Responce Force (QRF) wing responded along with Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) and [Pakistan Army’s] Light Commando Battallion…one terrorist was killed while two of them exploded”.
Terrorists belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

Major General Sher Afgan, chief of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Balochistan, which led the counter-operation, said “the attack was over in around three hours after we arrived.”

He added that the militants belonged to the Al-Alimi faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group – which is affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban. “They were in communication with operatives in Afghanistan,” he said. The group itself has not claimed the attack.

Bugti said the compound was housing some 700 recruits at the time of the attack, hundreds of whom were rescued.
The area was plunged into darkness when the counter-offensive was launched, while security personnel created a cordon and ambulances zoomed in and out, taking the injured to hospitals. Military helicopters circled overhead.
Two FC personnel gunned down in Quetta

Bugti said the law enforcers cleared the operation within four hours, adding that “99% the operation is complete but the forces will remain in the centre till daylight”.

The training college is situated on Sariab Road, one of the most sensitive areas of Quetta. While militants have been targeting security forces in the area for almost a decade, the training college has come under attack in 2006 and 2008.

The casualties were driven to different hospitals of the city where a state of emergency was declared. Provincial authorities, in the meantime, also made arrangements to fly those with critical wounds to hospitals in Karachi.
Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri said that the terrorists attacked the police centre, which is located on the edge of Quetta, after they failed to hit a target in the provincial capital where security was on high alert following intelligence information about a possible attack three or four days back.

The attack came a day after separatist gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead two coast guards and a civilian and wounded a shopkeeper in Gwadar.

In August, a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital claimed by the Islamic State group and the Jamaatul Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban killed 73 people, including many of the city’s lawyer community who had gone there to mourn the fatal shooting of a colleague.

Balochistan is also a key region for China’s ambitious $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project linking its western province of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea via Pakistan.

Pakistan blames India for fuelling terrorism in Balochistan in an attempt to sabotage CPEC. A senior officer of Indian navy, Kulbushan Yadav, was arrested from Balochistan earlier this year.