Bomb kills soldier, wounds 11 people in southwest Pakistan
Pakistani officials say a bombing killed a soldier and wounded 11 others, mostly civilians, in southwestern Pakistan
ByABDUL SATTAR Associated Press
February 6, 2023, 4:30 AM
QUETTA, Pakistan -- A bombing near a vehicle carrying Pakistani paramilitary troops in southwestern Baluchistan province killed a soldier and wounded 11 people, mostly civilians, police and security officials said Monday.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place on Sunday.
Pakistan has been battling an insurgency in Baluchistan for more than a decade, with separatists in the province demanding complete autonomy or a larger share of the province’s gas and mineral resources.
The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan — or TTP as the Pakistani Taliban are known — and other militants also have a presence in the province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
Sunday's bombing took place near the Musa Khan checkpoint in Quetta, the Baluchistan provincial capital, said local police official Mohammad Khan. He provided no further details.
Shortly after the bombing, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. Police and security officials have not given confirmed the source of the blast.
The latest incident comes a week after a suicide bomber killed 101 people at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar, drawing nationwide condemnation and prompting Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to convene a meeting of opposition politicians and his allies to discuss how to respond to the surge in militant violence.
The conference was initially planned for Tuesday but has been pushed back to Thursday.
Pakistani officials have blamed the TTP, which maintains sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan, for orchestrating the Peshawar bombing. The TTP has denied involvement. The militant group, however, has stepped up its attacks since November, when it ended a cease-fire with the government in Islamabad.
Sharif has invited his predecessor and opposition leader Imran Khan to Thursday’s talks, but Khan has yet to confirm his participation.
Since the Peshawar attack, members of civil society groups have staged rallies across the country, holding prayer ceremonies for the victims and demanding the government take action to curb the surge in militant attacksThe military airport is around 200 meters (219 yards) from the civilian airport and close to the Interior Ministry, itself the site of a suicide bombing in October that killed at least four people.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the blast left several people dead and wounded. He gave no exact figures or further information about the bombing, saying details of an investigation will be shared later.
Although Taliban security forces prevented photography and filming directly at the blast site, the checkpoint appeared damaged but intact. It is on Airport Road, which leads to high-security neighborhoods housing government ministries, foreign embassies, and the presidential palace.
A spokesperson for the Kabul police chief, Khalid Zadran, was not immediately available for comment this is the third incident to hit the area in barely a week, leaving five people killed and property destroyed amid rising attacks by suspected members of al-Shabaab in the coastal region in the recent past.
Al-Shabaab has been launching cowardly attacks on Kenyan soil but the incidents have tremendously reduced due to improved surveillance in the country. The KDF team mans critical entry points and for the past few years, the Kenya-Somalia border has been closed due to security reasons.
There is also an influx of Al-Shabaab terrorists from Somalia following the ongoing crackdown which has seen the group lose strategic towns. A number of the militants mostly foreign fighters are using the Kenya border as an escape route to their native countries according to authorities in Kenya.
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