QUETTA: A suicide bomber struck a political rally in Pakistan\u2019s southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 31, a senior police official said, as party leaders declared three days of mourning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Balochistan, Pakistan\u2019s largest but most impoverished province, has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in recent months, with separatist militants attacking security forces, government officials and people from other provinces. These militant groups have long accused the Pakistani state of exploiting the province\u2019s vast natural resources without equitably sharing the benefits with local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pakistani authorities have, however, consistently rejected these accusations, maintaining that a significant number of development projects are underway to uplift Balochistan\u2019s economy, improve infrastructure and expand access to education and health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday\u2019s suicide bombing, which targeted a rally arranged by the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) in Quetta to mark the fourth death anniversary of its former leader Attaullah Mengal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAround eight to 10 kilograms of explosive material was used in the attack,\u201d Senior Superintendent Police Muhammad Baloch told Arab News, confirming the number of dead and injured. \u201cSecurity officials have collected the evidence from the crime scene and investigations are underway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baloch said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber who had been waiting outside the venue of the rally and detonated his vest as party workers and senior members were leaving the stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BNP-M, an ethnic Baloch nationalist political party headed by former parliamentarian, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, is a key force in the province\u2019s Baloch-majority districts. Mengal survived another attack during a rally in March against the arrest of ethnic rights group leader Dr. Mahrang Baloch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter the rally, I was escorting our guests, including the opposition leader, Mehmood Khan Achakzai,\u201d Mengal told Arab News. \u201cAs we left and moved a little ahead, the blast occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe government didn\u2019t inform us of any threat alert before the rally,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe have announced three days of mourning and a black day today. Further actions will be announced after discussions with our aligned political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Medical officials have also shifted eight critically injured people to the Combined Military Hospital, according to Dr. Waseem Baig, Media Coordinator for the provincial health department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Balochistan remains of strategic significance for Pakistan, where China has invested heavily in road and infrastructure projects linked to its Belt and Road Initiative since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
QUETTA: A suicide bomber struck a political rally in Pakistan\u2019s southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 31, a senior police official said, as party leaders declared three days of mourning. Balochistan, Pakistan\u2019s largest but most impoverished province, has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-85","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pakistan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/87"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}