Terrror attacks in Pakistan kill at least 61

Pakistan faced a number of terror attacks on three Pakistani cities on Friday that left at least 61 people dead and many injured. A suicide bomber in the city of Quetta killed at least 12 people and injured about 20.
Subsequently, there were twin blasts in a congested market in the city of Parachinar. This is the main city in the Kurram tribal region and at least 45 people were killed in this blast. There was another attack by a gunmen in the port city of Karachi - this attack at a roadside restaurant killed four.
The attacks have taken place ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid, which ends the holy month of Ramadan.
This has been reported in latimes.com dated 24 June 2017.

After the Quetta attack, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility. Later, the Islamic State extremist group also said it was behind the attack. To prove its claim, it released a photograph of the alleged attacker and identified the individual as well.


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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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Terrorists attack police training college in Quetta and at least 51 reported killed

Three terrorists had attacked a police training college in Quetta and an operation had to be launched by military and Frontier Corps forces to clear the premises which houses at least 600 police cadets. At least 51 people, most of them cadets, were killed and 97 others were injured in the attack.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 25 October 2016.

There were three terrorists, all wearing suicide vests, and were reportedly in contact with their handlers in Afghanistan. Two of the suicide attackers blew themselves up, which resulted in casualties, and the third one was shot dead by the troops.
The training college is situated on Sariab Road, believed to be one of the most sensitive areas of Quetta.
Incidentally, militants have been targeting security forces in the area for almost a decade and, the training college has come under attack in the past in 2008 and 2006 when attackers had fired rockets into the college playground.
The college is spread over an acre of land and is located about 13 kilometres outside the main city of Quetta.


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Suicide bomb and gun attacks in northwestern Pakistan leave at least 13 dead

Suicide bomb and gun attacks in northwestern Pakistan leave at least 13 dead and 54 others injured. A suicide bomber shot his way through the main gate leading to the district court in the city of Mardan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and threw a hand grenade before detonating his suicide vest among the morning crowds. Many of the wounded are in a critical condition and death toll could increase.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 2 September 2016.

As revealed by a senior police official, the bomber had up to eight kilogrammes of explosives packed into his vest. The dead included lawyers, police personnel and civilians.
On Friday, a group of militants had stormed a Christian neighborhood near Warsak Dam, just north of Peshawar. Four of the militants wore suicide vests and entered the colony and one of them went into a church, but it was empty. But, the attackers killed one Christian. The suicide bombers were later killed by soldiers backed by army helicopters in an exchange of gunfire. Three security officials and two civilian guards were also wounded in the attacks.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for both attacks. It has also admitted that it was behind a massive suicide blast three weeks ago in which a number of lawyers wee killed in the southwestern city of Quetta, apart from the Lahore Easter bombing that killed 75 people.


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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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