Bomb blast in a mosque in Kabul during evening prayers kills many

A bomb blast in the Siddiquiya Mosque in the northern Kabul neighborhood of Khair Khanna killed many worshippers. It happened during evening prayers and the authorities have yet to confirm the exact number of deaths. Initial reports say the blast killed at least three people and left dozens of others wounded. Italian non-governmental organization NGO Emergency operates a hospital in the capital. It said it had 27 patients wounded in the blast. Three of them are dead and five of the wounded were children. A security official revealed to a section of the media that 20 people lost their lives in the blast and 40 others suffered injuries. A spokesman of the Taliban government confirmed people have died but did not specify the number of casualties. Several killed in explosion at mosque in Kabul. The official wrote on Twitter - “The murderers of civilians and perpetrators … will soon be punished for their crimes.”

A spokesman of the Kabul police confirmed - “A blast happened inside a mosque … the blast has casualties, but the numbers are not clear yet.” Witnesses revealed to the media about the blast that shattered windows in nearby buildings. Intelligence teams arrived at the site of the blast and the matter is under investigation. The Taliban took over in August last year after the withdrawal of United States-led NATO forces. The de-facto government of the Taliban has yet to be recognized by the world. The Taliban asserts that it has made the nation secure but Afghanistan continues to witness regular attacks by armed groups. Militant groups commit many of these. Last week, a bomb attack killed a prominent Taliban religious leader at a seminary in Kabul. The ISIL (ISIS) armed group claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier, in June, there was an attack on a Sikh temple in Kabul in which two people were killed.

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Bomb blast in a vegetable market in Parachinar kills at least 20

A bomb exploded at a vegetable market in northwest Pakistan in the city of Parachinar, a mainly Shia Muslim area on the Afghan border. It has left at least 20 dead and another 40 wounded. At the time, the market was full of shoppers and officials believe that the death toll could rise.
A faction of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) said it was behind the blast - its intention was "to avenge the killing of our associates". The group wanted to "teach a lesson to Shiites for their support for Bashar al-Assad." The obvious reference was to the Syrian president.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 21 January 2017.

The spokesman of the group warned that his Sunni Muslim group will continue to attack Shia Muslims if they back President Assad because his regime is entrenched in a six-year civil war that has claimed more than 310,000 lives. The exact source of the blast is still not known. It could be from an improvised explosive device (IED) hidden in a vegetable box. Or, it could be a suicide bomber.
Pakistan's soldiers had cordoned off the bomb site, and Army helicopters were sent to evacuate the injured. Incidentally, Parachinar is the capital of the Kurram, one of Pakistan's seven tribal districts. In December 2015, an IED blast at the same market had killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 30.


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At least 52 killed and more than 100 injured in a bomb blast at a remote Sufi shrine in Pakistan

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast in a Sufi shrine in Baluchistan with at least 52 killed and more than 100 others injured - many of the victims were women and children. Devotees were at the time participating in a ceremony of devotional dance session, which is held daily before dusk, when the blast occurred.
The shrine of the Sufi saint Shah Noorani is located some 750-Km south of Quetta, the provincial capital of restive southern Balochistan province. The shrine sits on a hill which devotees have to climb for half an hour as there is no regular road.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 13 November 2016.

The shrine is revered and visited both by minority Shia and Sunni Muslims, but militant groups like the Taliban and Islamic State (IS) consider the practice against Islam. IS has claimed responsibility for the attack saying that a suicide bomber had targeted the shrine and had killed around 35 people and injured 95 others.
At the time of the attack, there wee about 600 people at the shrine - many of the devotees traveled to the site from Karachi during weekends.


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Explosion in a street market in Philipines kills at least 12

An explosion at a packed night market in Davao, the home city of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, has killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear and no agency has taken responsibility for it.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 3 September 2016.

The blast tore through a street market outside the high-end Marco Polo hotel which is a frequent haunt of Duterte but he was, at the time, in the southern city of Davao and hence was not hurt. The locality where the explosion happened was a massage parlour.
Davao is located in Mindanao, a large southern island beset by decades of Muslim insurgency. The region is also home to Abu Sayyaf, a rebel group that has links to Islamic State and is notorious for making tens of millions of dollars from kidnappings. The city of Davao is largely peaceful and Duterte has converted it from a lawless town to a southern commercial hub for call centres apart from offshore business processing services.


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Bomb blast in Quetta civil hospital leave at least 30 dead

A powerful bomb blast in the premises of a government-run hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta has left at least 30 dead with dozens more wounded. The blast happened shortly after the body of a prominent lawyer, who had been killed in a shooting attack earlier in the day, was brought to the hospital.
This has been reported in abcnews.go.com dated 8 August 2016.

It seems nearly 100 lawyers and other people had gathered there at the time and most of the dead were lawyers who had gathered after the body of Bilal Kasi was brought to the hospital. A reporter of a Pakistani news channel has revealed that one of the victims was its cameraman. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, which struck at the gates of the building housing the emergency ward, on the hospital grounds.
Lawyer Bilal Kasi was gunned down on his way to court earlier in the day and it is not yet known whether the death of the lawyer and the bombing were related in any way.


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ISIS was, till now, active in the Middle East and parts of Europe but indications are there that it is trying to make inroads into India. In a joint operation, the Hyderabad police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials have apprehended eleven youths from Old City of Hyderabad. These youngsters were, the police said, preparing to join the terror outfit Islamic State.
This has been reported in thehindu.com dated 29 June 2016.

Three of them have been identified and some weapons seized. It appears they had got in touch with IS handlers operating from abroad through social networking sites like Facebook. As per initial reports, cash and explosive material have been seized from them. This is the second major operation against IS linked youngsters of Hyderabad that has been busted by the police in recent times.
Times of India adds - the youths were allegedly plotting powerful bomb blasts to target VVIPs and crowded places in the city and also intended to trigger communal riots by placing cow and buffalo meat at the Bhagyalakshmi temple at the base of the iconic Charminar.
It may be recalled that a IS module consisting of six persons from Hyderabad had been busted during the country-wide raids by the NIA three months ago. That module had obtained explosive substance and even conducted blast on experimental basis in Narsapur forest of Medak district.
Police are trying to ascertain if the six youths detained now have any links with the previous module.


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Bomb blast in Peshawar bus kills 15, leaves 30 injured

A powerful bomb blast in a bus carrying government employees in Pakistan's Peshawar city left at least 15 people dead and 30 others injured. The incident happened when a bomb placed inside the bus exploded and the bus was packed with government employees who had reached Peshawar from Mardan.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 16 March 2016.

The bomb had exploded when the private bus was on Sunehri Masjid Road and was taking civil secretariat employees for duty. The bus had 50 people on board at the time of the explosion and two women and a child were among the dead. At least 30 people were injured in the blast.
The blast had been triggered by an improvised explosive device (IED) planted inside the bus and, it is estimated that about 8-Kg of explosives were used in blast. The roof of the bus had blown off and people are being pulled out after cutting the damaged portion.
The injured have been shifted to nearby Lady Reading hospital and the condition of a majority of those injured was stated to be critical. Eight of them have been admitted in ICU.
Peshawar is home to the XI Corps which is an administrative corp of the Pakistan Army. It manages all military activity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is, at present, engaged in a full-blown operation against militants in North Waziristan.


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