Friday, January 11, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
96 killed in Quetta bomb blasts
Muhammad Ejaz Khan
Friday, January 11, 2013
From Print Edition
QUETTA: Thursday, January 10, turned out to be a horrific day for the people of Quetta when the city was rocked by three bombings that killed at least 96 people and injured over 200. The dead included security officials, Edhi volunteers, a TV reporter and a cameraman. The last bombing of the day was the most powerful ever to hit the city.
The first explosion took place at the Bacha Khan Chowk in the afternoon while the other two occured on the crowded Alamdar Road at night.
The deadly twin blasts that rocked Alamdar Road left at least 80 people dead, including a deputy superintendent of police, an SHO, Edhi volunteers, a reporter and cameraman of Samaa TV, while 200 others were injured.
Police said the first blast took place outside a snooker club at the Rehmatullah Chowk, an area inhabited by the Hazara Shia community, at about 8:50pm, which left some 10 people injured. The more powerful second blast took place on the same spot after 20 minutes when a lot of passers-by, media men and police officials had assembled to evacuate the injured of the first blast.
This resulted in the death of as many as 70 people on the spot, most of them from the Hazrara Shia community. DSP Mujahid Hussain, SHO Zafar Ali, Samaa cameraman Imran Sheikh, a reporter of the same channel, Saifur Rehman, and four Edhi volunteers were among those killed. A Geo cameraman Acme Roger received injuries on the face.
All the injured, some of them in a precarious condition, were rushed to different hospitals in the city, where an emergency had been declared. The blasts caused suspension of electricity supply to the area.
“It was the largest ever bomb to have hit the city,” said a senior police official. Police experts said that more than 100 kg of explosives were used in the bomb, a record for troubled Quetta city.
Earlier, the first bomb of the day exploded at a busy shopping area, the Bacha Khan Chowk, killing at least 12 people and wounding 40 others. Hospital sources feared that the death toll might rise, as many injured people were in a critical condition. One Jawan of the Frontier Corps (FC) was among the 12 people who were killed in the blast.
The bomb was planted under a white-coloured car and went off with a big bang at around 3:50pm. “Initial investigations suggest that the blast was caused by a remote controlled bomb, which was planted under a vehicle,” CCPO Quetta Mir Zubair said while talking to newsmen on the spot. The thud of the explosion could be heard several kilometres away. Apparently, the blast targeted a security forces’ vehicle, sources added.
More than 12 vehicles and four motorcycles were badly damaged in the blast. The windowpanes of nearby buildings were smashed. The victims were shifted to the Civil Hospital and CMH.
The police and law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area. “It was a high-powered time device weighing 20 to 25 kilograms and was planted under a car near the Baldia Plaza at Bacha Khan Chowk”, said officials of the bomb disposal squad. The blast created a nine-foot-long and four-foot-deep crater.
Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Balochistan governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, PTI Chairman Imran Khan and others strongly condemned the blasts. They expressed deep concern over the deaths of the people.
Friday, January 11, 2013
From Print Edition
QUETTA: Thursday, January 10, turned out to be a horrific day for the people of Quetta when the city was rocked by three bombings that killed at least 96 people and injured over 200. The dead included security officials, Edhi volunteers, a TV reporter and a cameraman. The last bombing of the day was the most powerful ever to hit the city.
The first explosion took place at the Bacha Khan Chowk in the afternoon while the other two occured on the crowded Alamdar Road at night.
The deadly twin blasts that rocked Alamdar Road left at least 80 people dead, including a deputy superintendent of police, an SHO, Edhi volunteers, a reporter and cameraman of Samaa TV, while 200 others were injured.
Police said the first blast took place outside a snooker club at the Rehmatullah Chowk, an area inhabited by the Hazara Shia community, at about 8:50pm, which left some 10 people injured. The more powerful second blast took place on the same spot after 20 minutes when a lot of passers-by, media men and police officials had assembled to evacuate the injured of the first blast.
This resulted in the death of as many as 70 people on the spot, most of them from the Hazrara Shia community. DSP Mujahid Hussain, SHO Zafar Ali, Samaa cameraman Imran Sheikh, a reporter of the same channel, Saifur Rehman, and four Edhi volunteers were among those killed. A Geo cameraman Acme Roger received injuries on the face.
All the injured, some of them in a precarious condition, were rushed to different hospitals in the city, where an emergency had been declared. The blasts caused suspension of electricity supply to the area.
“It was the largest ever bomb to have hit the city,” said a senior police official. Police experts said that more than 100 kg of explosives were used in the bomb, a record for troubled Quetta city.
Earlier, the first bomb of the day exploded at a busy shopping area, the Bacha Khan Chowk, killing at least 12 people and wounding 40 others. Hospital sources feared that the death toll might rise, as many injured people were in a critical condition. One Jawan of the Frontier Corps (FC) was among the 12 people who were killed in the blast.
The bomb was planted under a white-coloured car and went off with a big bang at around 3:50pm. “Initial investigations suggest that the blast was caused by a remote controlled bomb, which was planted under a vehicle,” CCPO Quetta Mir Zubair said while talking to newsmen on the spot. The thud of the explosion could be heard several kilometres away. Apparently, the blast targeted a security forces’ vehicle, sources added.
More than 12 vehicles and four motorcycles were badly damaged in the blast. The windowpanes of nearby buildings were smashed. The victims were shifted to the Civil Hospital and CMH.
The police and law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area. “It was a high-powered time device weighing 20 to 25 kilograms and was planted under a car near the Baldia Plaza at Bacha Khan Chowk”, said officials of the bomb disposal squad. The blast created a nine-foot-long and four-foot-deep crater.
Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Balochistan governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, PTI Chairman Imran Khan and others strongly condemned the blasts. They expressed deep concern over the deaths of the people.
The World Community’s Passive Liquidation of the Hazara People
Posted on 10/01/2013
Foto: http://www.hazarapeople.com
I usually write in Norwegian on this blog, but due to the international proportions of today’s hideous attacks targeting the Hazara people in Quetta, Pakistan, I’ve decided to write this post in English.
As most of my Hazara friends and acquaintances know, I am not Hazara myself. In fact, until just a few years ago, I had never heard the name and knew nothing of their plight.
Through personal contact with refugees who have come to Norway, where I currently reside, I have gotten to know many Hazaras personally, and even more so through internet activism and personal research. What I have discovered has been both marvelous and horrifying: the former for the overwhelming hospitality and friendship which I have encountered in the Hazara community, which has embraced me as one of their own; the latter for the appalling human rights atrocities being committed against them; actively by the Afghan and Pakistani governments, and passively by the Norwegian and other European nations.... Continue Reading...
Foto: http://www.hazarapeople.com
I usually write in Norwegian on this blog, but due to the international proportions of today’s hideous attacks targeting the Hazara people in Quetta, Pakistan, I’ve decided to write this post in English.
As most of my Hazara friends and acquaintances know, I am not Hazara myself. In fact, until just a few years ago, I had never heard the name and knew nothing of their plight.
Through personal contact with refugees who have come to Norway, where I currently reside, I have gotten to know many Hazaras personally, and even more so through internet activism and personal research. What I have discovered has been both marvelous and horrifying: the former for the overwhelming hospitality and friendship which I have encountered in the Hazara community, which has embraced me as one of their own; the latter for the appalling human rights atrocities being committed against them; actively by the Afghan and Pakistani governments, and passively by the Norwegian and other European nations.... Continue Reading...
Quetta blasts: Balochistan government announces three-day mourning
January 11, 2013 - Updated 225 PKT
QUETTA: Balochistan government has announced three-day mourning over the killing of 81 people in twin suicide attacks on Alamdar Road, Geo News reported.
Meanwhile, the provincial government has announced compensation for the heirs of blast victims.
Sources said Rs2 million each would be provided to the heirs of deceased police officers and personnel while Rs1 million each would be provided to the relatives of other victims of Alamdar Road blasts.
Rs1 million each has also been announced for reporter and cameraman, of private TV channel ‘Samaa’, who lost their lives in the attack.
QUETTA: Balochistan government has announced three-day mourning over the killing of 81 people in twin suicide attacks on Alamdar Road, Geo News reported.
Meanwhile, the provincial government has announced compensation for the heirs of blast victims.
Sources said Rs2 million each would be provided to the heirs of deceased police officers and personnel while Rs1 million each would be provided to the relatives of other victims of Alamdar Road blasts.
Rs1 million each has also been announced for reporter and cameraman, of private TV channel ‘Samaa’, who lost their lives in the attack.
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...
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.
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.
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