BBC; Pakistan blasts: Scores killed at Quetta snooker hall

Twin blasts at a snooker hall in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta have killed 81 people and injured more than 120, police say.

Many of the casualties were caused by the second blast as police and media rushed to the scene.

The bombed area is predominantly Shia Muslim, and the Sunni extremist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, said it had carried out the attack.

Earlier, a bomb in a market area killed 11 people and injured 27 more.

A spokesman for another militant group, the United Baloch Army, said it had carried out that attack.

Balochistan is plagued by both a separatist rebellion and sectarian infighting between Sunnis and Shias.

The Taliban and armed groups that support them also carry out attacks in the province, particularly in areas near the Afghan border. Pakistan's military has been engaged in a long-running battle against those militant groups... Continue Reading... 

Pakistan bombings kill at least 100

Attacks in city of Quetta, including two bombs in ten minutes at snooker club, come at time of heightened political tension

Jon Boone in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 January 2013 15.40 EST

People search for the victims of two bomb attacks in a snooker hall in Quetta, south-west Pakistan. Photograph: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images

A vicious double bombing of a snooker club capped one of the bloodiest days in Pakistan for many months on Thursday, leaving more than 100 people dead and hundreds injured in three different attacks.

The death toll was shockingly high even by the bloody standards of Pakistan, which is beset by separatist insurgencies and Islamic militants at war with the state.

The surge in violence comes at a time of heightened political tension as the preparations of the coalition government to step down and fight elections have been threatened by a religious cleric who plans to bring a massive protest march to the capital on Monday.

Tahir-ul-Qadri's march, which the religious leader says will turn Islamabad into Tahrir Square, is billed as a protest against corruption and a demand for clean elections, but many politicians fear the real purpose is to find a pretext to delay the polls.

On Thursday Quetta, the south–east city that is home to the leadership of the Afghan Taliban and groups fighting for the province of Baluchistan to become an independent state, was rocked by two attacks.

A security check post was targeted in the first blast in the morning, killing 12 and injuring 25, according to the province's chief minister.

A little known group called the United Baluch Army claimed responsibility.

In the evening another 81 people lost their lives and 110 were wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up within ten minutes of each other in a packed building where young men go to play snooker.

The second blast appeared to be deliberately designed to kill the medical workers, anguished relatives and journalists who rushed to the scene.

Mohammed Murtaza, a police officer, said the second bomb caused the building to collapse, killing even more people.

Many of the dead and wounded, Murtaza said, were from the Shia sect of Islam, which extremist groups drawn from Pakistan's majority Sunni popular regard as heretics.

Shias, many of whom are members of the Hazara ethnic community in Quetta, have been particularly targeted by sectarian terror groups.

Human Rights Watch said the government's failure to protect Shias "amounts to complicity in the barbaric slaughter of Pakistani citizens".

"[Last year] was the bloodiest year for Pakistan's Shia community in living memory and if this latest attack is any indication, 2013 has started on an even more dismal note," said Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch.

"As Shia community members continue to be slaughtered in cold blood, the callousness and indifference of authorities offers a damning indictment of the state, its military and security agencies."

The organisation said the police had "turned a blind eye" to the activities of nominally banned sectarian terror groups, such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Also on Thursday a bomb ripped through a crowded Sunni mosque outside the north-west city of Mingora in Swat, an area the government had to wrest from Taliban control in 2009.

The building is owned by Tableeghi Jamaat, a preaching organisation that is not linked to any militant organisations.

The attack killed 22 people and wounded more than 70, said a senior police officer.

In 2012 a total of 2,050 people were killed and 3,822 injured in Pakistan in attacks by Islamic militants, nationalist insurgents and violent sectarian groups.

Guardian 

Irfan Ali Khudi; A young peace activist, among many other precious lives that became the victim of twin suicide bombings on Alamdar road, Quetta.  

Twin suicide blasts kill 81 in Quetta

January 11, 2013 - Updated 130 PKT
From Web Edition



QUETTA: Twin suicide attacks killed 81 people and wounded more than 120 others at a crowded snooker club in Quetta late Thursday, police said.

"The death toll has risen to 81 so far," CCPO Quetta Mir Zubair Mehmood told a news conference, putting the number of wounded at 121.

"Nine police personnel, including two officers, have lost their lives. Both (attacks) were (carried out by) suicide bombers and the death toll could rise further," he added. (AFP)

The News 

Series of bombs kill 103 in Pakistan including 69 in Quetta suicide attack

AP
January 11, 20135:57AM




Pakistani security personnel search wreckage after two suicide bombers hit Quetta, Pakistan, killing 69. A series of bombs across the country left more than 100 people dead overnight. Source: AFP


A SERIES of bombings in different parts of Pakistan killed 103 people, including 69 who died in a sectarian attack on a bustling billiard hall in the southwest city of Quetta, officials said.

The blasts punctuated one of the deadliest days in recent years in Pakistan, where the government faces a bloody insurgency by Taliban militants in the northwest and Baluch militants in the southwest.

The country is also home to many enemies of the US that Washington has frequently targeted with drone attacks. A US missile strike overnight killed five suspected militants in the seventh such attack in two weeks, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The billiard hall in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, was hit by twin blasts about 10 minutes apart, killing 69 people and wounding more 160 others, said senior police officer Hamid Shakeel.

The billiard hall was located in an area dominated by Shiite Muslims, and most of the dead and wounded were from the minority sect, said another police officer, Mohammed Murtaza.



A blast victim is rushed to a hospital after twin attacks in Quetta, Pakistan.

Many of the people who rushed to the scene after the first blast and were hit by the second bomb, which caused the roof of the building to collapse, he said.

Police officers, journalists and rescue workers who responded to the initial explosion were also among the dead, police said.

The sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attack to local journalists. One of the group's spokesmen, Bakar Saddiq, said the first blast was carried out by a suicide bomber and the second was a bomb planted in a car and detonated by remote control.

Radical Sunnis groups often target Pakistan's Shiite minority, whom they believe hold heretical views and are not true Muslims.

Earlier in the day, a bomb targeting paramilitary soldiers in a commercial area in Quetta killed 12 people and wounded more than 40 others, said Shakeel, the senior police officer.

The United Baluch Army, a separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack on the soldiers in calls to local journalists.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, a bomb in a crowded Sunni mosque in the northwest city of Mingora killed 22 people and wounded more than 70, said senior police officer Akhtar Hayyat.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Herald Sun 

بس بہت ہوگیا! عوام متحد ہوجائیں ،دہشتگردوں کو اب معصوم لوگوں کو شہید کرنے کا حساب دینا ہوگا،گورنر بلوچستان

January 11, 2013 

 Posted by dailyqudrat

کوئٹہ(قدرت نیوز)گورنربلوچستان نواب ذوالفقارعلی مگسی نے کوئٹہ بم دھماکے کی شدیدالفاظ میں مذمت کرتے ہوئے قیمتی جانوں کے ضیاع پر افسوس کااظہارکیاہے اپنے ایک بیان میں گورنر نے بم دھماکے کو دہشت گردی کی بدترین اوربزدلانہ کاروائی قراردیتے ہوئے کہاہے کہ دہشت گرد عناصر اپنے بیرونی آقاں کے ایماءپر مذموم مقاصد کے حصول کےلئے سیکیورٹی فورسز کونشانہ بناتے ہوئے ان کے حوصلہ پست کرناچاہ رہے ہیں جن کی زد میں معصوم شہری بھی آکر اپنی جانیں گنواں رہے ہیں انہوں نے کہاکہ معصوم جانوں سے کھیلنے کی اجازت دنیا کاکوئی مذہب ومعاشرہ نہیں دیتا اوراس قسم کی کاروائیوں میں ملوث عناصر کاکوئی قوم ،قبیلہ اورمذہب نہیں ،انہوں نے کہا کہ پولیس اورایف سی سمیت قانون نافذ کرنے والے دیگراداروں کے اہلکارہماری جان ومال کاتحفظ یقینی بنارہے ہیں اوران کی بے بہاقربانیاں صوبے کے عوام کےلئے قابل فخر ہیں گورنر نے کہاکہ اب وقت آگیا ہے کہ تمام قبائل ،سیاسی جماعتیں اورمعاشرے کے تمام افراد دہشت گردوں کےخلاف متحدہ ہوجائیں اورہرسطح پر ان کی بھرپورمذمت کرکے انہیں یہ احساس دلایاجائے کہ ان کےلئے بلوچستان کی سرزمین اوریہاں کے عوام کے دلوں میں کوئی جگہ نہیں اورجلد اپنے سیاہ کارناموں کاحساب دیناہوگا،گورنر نے بالخصوص عام لوگوں پر زوردیا کہ وہ اپنے اردگرد کے ماحول،مشکوک افراد،ان کی نقل وحمل اوراشیاءپر نظررکھتے ہوئے قانون نافذ کرنے والے اداروں کو اطلاع دیکر ذمہ دارشہری ہونے کاثبوت دیں کیونکہ اسی میں ہم سب کی بقاءاورسلامتی ہے گورنر نے متاثرہ خاندانوں سے ہمدردی کااظہارکرتے ہوئے مرحومین کی مغفرت اورزخمیوں کی جلدصحت یابی کےلئے دعا کی ہے جبکہ انہوں نے پولیس اورانتظامیہ کو ہدایت کی ہے کہ کوئٹہ شہر سمیت صوبے بھرمیں سیکورٹی کے انتظامات کوفول پروف بنایاجائے۔

Daily Qudrat 

کالعدم مذہبی تنظیم لشکری جھنگوی نے علمدار روڈ پر ہونے والے دونوں دھماکو ں کی ذمہ داری قبول کرلی

کوئٹہ(این این آئی)کالعدم مذہبی تنظیم لشکری جھنگوی نے علمدار روڈ پر ہونے والے دونوں دھماکوں کی ذمہ داری قبول کرلی ہے۔لشکری جھنگوی کے ترجمان ابوبکرصدیق نے جمعرات کی شب نامعلوم مقام سے پرنٹ اور الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے دفاتر ٹیلیفون کر کے واقعہ کی ذمہ داری قبول کی ترجمان نے کہاکہ آج کے دونوں فدائی حملوں کی ذمہ داری لشکر جھنگوی کے مجاہدین قبول کرتے ہیں پہلا فدائی حملہ خودکش جیکٹس کے ذریعے کیاگیا اوردوسرا فدائی حملہ گاڑی کے ذریعے کیاگیا،ترجمان نے کہا کہ لشکری جھنگوی نے2012 میں دشمن کو انتباہ کیاتھاکہ2012 کے اختتام تک بلوچستان سے نکل جائیں اس تنبیہ پر بڑی تعداد میں دشمن فرارہوگئے لیکن چند دشمنوں نے اپنی ملازمتوں جائیدادوں کو اپنی جان سے عزیز سمجھا اور بلوچستان میں ہی محدود رہے اب انشاء اﷲ لشکر جھنگوی2013میں شعیوں کو زندہ فرار نہیں ہونے دیں گے،2013کا پہلا فدائی حملہ اس سلسلے کی پہلی کڑی ہے انشاء اﷲ اب ہم ایسے حملے کریں گے کہ دشمن کو فرار کا راستہ بھی نہیں ملے گا ہم لشکری جھنگوی کے مجاہدین نے اپنا سب کچھ اﷲ کے دین پر وقف کردیا ہے اورہمارے یہاں زندگی صرف غیرت کیلئے ہے ہم بے غیرتی کی زندگی پر شہادت کی موت کو ترجیح دیتے ہیں، اب لشکر جھنگوی شعیت کو صرف ایک پیغام دیتی ہے کہ مارو یا مرو، ترجمان نے کہاکہ میں حکومت کو ایک بار پھر آخری مرتبہ تنبیہ کرتاہوں کہ ہمارے ساتھیوں کو اے ٹی ایف جیل سے واپس منتقل کریں ہمارے علم کے مطابق ہمارے ساتھی وہاں بیمار ہورہے ہیں اور ان پر بے انتہا ظلم ڈھایاجارہاہے، اگر ہمارے ساتھیوں کو ہدہ جیل نہ منتقل کیاگیا تو ہمارے فدائیوں کا رخ چھاؤنی اے ٹی ایف جیل اور ایف سی سمیت تمام سیکیورٹی فورسز کے قافلے ہونگے

Daily Qudrat