A suicide car bomber killed at least seven people, including four police officers, in an attack near a checkpoint in the volatile south-western Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, officials said. Abdul Razzaq Cheema, director general of police in Baluchistan province, told Reuters it appeared the bomber had detonated a car packed with explosives.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Cyprus Weekly. </s> Islamabad, Pakistan - At least 12 people have been killed and 14 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack near the provincial police chief's office in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police officials told Al Jazeera.

The explosion on Friday morning struck a police checkpoint near a complex that is housing the Balochistan police chief's office, local police officer Muhammad Akbar said.

At least six police officers were among those killed, Ali Mardan, a senior police officer, told Al Jazeera.

Initial reports indicated a vehicle approached the checkpoint and explosives were set off when the driver of the vehicle was stopped by the police, provincial government spokesperson Anwar ul-Haq Kakar told local television channel Geo News.

"At 8:45am (03:45 GMT), there was an old car, a Toyota Corolla ... that came here near the [police chief's] office and it was stopped by the police personnel. That is when the blast took place," he said.

"There was no exchange of fire, but it's possible that law-enforcement personnel may have fired into the air."

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistan Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent out its spokesperson Asad Mansoor.

Altaf Hussain, local police official, said: "Some of the wounded are still in critical condition. Most are police personnel, as well as a traffic warden."

"It was a suicide attack. They came to the intersection and then blew themselves up there," said Hussain.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said the Inspector General's office was the likely target of the attack.

"The attack took place in the red zone, close to the IG's office as well as the State Bank of Pakistan," he said.

"Authorities are saying the IG's office could've been the target."

Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan province, has seen frequent attacks targeting government buildings and security forces, as well as civilians.

In February, two bomb disposal squad members were killed and 11 others wounded in an explosion under Quetta's Saryab bridge, local media reported.

In August last year, at least 74 people were killed in a suicide attack on the city's Civil Hospital, while another 60 were killed in an attack on a police academy two months later.

Past attacks in the province have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, ISIL, as well as by Baloch separatist fighters who are fighting for independence from Pakistan.

The province has also seen a number of attacks carried out by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's Al Alami faction, a group with ties to ISIL, known for attacking Shia Muslims.

Targeting CPEC

The resource-rich province is central to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $56bn trade and infrastructure project that seeks to create a major trade route from southwestern China to the Arabian Sea through the Balochistan port of Gwadar.

Security in Balochistan has been a major concern for CPEC, with separatists regularly attacking workers building road and other projects associated with the corridor.

Earlier this month, two Chinese citizens were kidnapped and killed in the province.

Pakistan has established a Special Security Division comprising 15,000 troops to secure the CPEC corridor and projects associated with it.

The Pakistani government and military have repeatedly blamed neighbours India for fomenting instability in Balochistan, although officials have presented limited evidence to back this claim.

On Thursday, Kulbhashan Yadav, an Indian national who has been convicted and sentenced to death by a military court for funding and planning attacks in Balochistan for the Indian spy agency RAW, submitted a confession and mercy petition to Pakistan's army chief, the Pakistani military said. </s> QUETTA, Pakistan: A suicide car bomber killed at least seven people, including four police officers, in an attack near a checkpoint in the volatile southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday (Jun 23), officials said.

Abdul Razzaq Cheema, director general of police in Baluchistan province, told Reuters it appeared the bomber had detonated a car packed with explosives. He said 15 people had been wounded.

"Seven dead bodies have been brought to the Civil Hospital in Quetta and at least five people are in critical condition," Cheema said.

Four of those killed were police officers, while nine security officials were among the wounded, said Fareed Sumalan, a doctor at the Civil Hospital.

Baluchistan government spokesman Anwar ul Haq Kakar said the blast happened near the office of the inspector general of police when officers stopped the car to search it near a checkpoint.

"It's possible the IG office was the target, or the assailants were trying to enter the (army) cantonment which is close by," he said.

Television footage showed emergency services rushing to the scene, which was covered in debris, while security officials cordoned off the area.

Quetta is about 100 km (60 miles) east of the border with Afghanistan and is the capital of Baluchistan, which has been plagued by militant violence. The province is the base of a separatist movement as well as home to the Taliban and other militant Islamist groups.

It is also at the centre of Chinese-backed "Belt and Road" development projects worth US$57 billion that first focussed on Chinese firms building roads and power stations but is now expanding to include setting up industries.

Militants from the Islamic State group abducted and killed two Chinese nationals in Quetta last month.

That attack prompted Pakistan to boost security around Chinese nationals and other foreigners in the province, which is already one of the most militarised regions in the country. </s> Roadside blast kills two cops in Quetta

QUETTA: A roadside bomb killed two policemen and injured eight other people on Tuesday, police and rescue officials said.

“A bomb planted on Sariab Road went off just as a police van passed by,” Geo News quoted Superintendent Police Abdullah Afridi as saying. It was not immediately clear whether all the injured were policemen, Afridi said.

The injured were moved to Civil Hospital Quetta, where at least one of them is said to be in critical condition.

Rescue officials said two policemen were killed and five others injured in the attack that apparently targeted their van. Two passers by are said to have sustained injuries in the attack. The police suspect that the attack was carried out through a remote-controlled device.

Earlier in the day, at least three policemen were injured when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives while trying to enter Khanpur Imambargah in Shikarpur district of SIindh province as worshipers were offering Eid prayers.

Worshippers overpowered the second would-be suicide bomber as the police were reeling from their injuries inflicted in the first blast. </s> Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistan's three major cities today, killing 62 people and wounding nearly 100.

The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob's office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Thirteen people, including seven policemen, died in the suicide car bombing, officials said.

Hours later, two back-to-back blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia- dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 others.

The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion.

At least 45 people have been killed and 75 others injured in Parachinar, an official from the Parachinar administration told </s> In Pakistan, at least 21 people have been killed and 50 others injured in a suicide bombing today in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. The attack believed to be targeting the Shiite Hazara ethnic minority community.

The explosion happened this morning in the busy wholesale market area of Hazarganj. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. </s> PESHAWAR/KARACHI: Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistan’s three major cities today, killing 42 people and wounding 121 others.

The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob’s office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Thirteen people, including seven policemen, died in the suicide car bombing, officials said.

Hours later, two back-to-back blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia- dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region, killing at least 25 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 100 others. (AGENCIES) </s> Bombs killed at least 40 people in Pakistan on Friday, with a suicide car bomber killing 13 in the southwestern city of Quetta, and two blasts later claiming at least 27 lives in the northwestern town of Parachinar, officials said.

A separate gun attack on police in the southern megacity of Karachi killed four officers on Friday evening, a security official said.

Seven police officers were among those killed in the first attack, in Quetta, which happened when police stopped the car to search it at a checkpoint.

Abdul Razzaq Cheema, director general of police in Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is capital, told Reuters the bomber had detonated a car packed with explosives.

At least 13 bodies were taken to hospital, along with 19 wounded people, said Wasim Baig, a spokesman for the Civil Hospital in Quetta. Nine security officials were among the wounded, said Fareed Sumalan, a doctor at the hospital.

Jamaat ur Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a message sent to Reuters by its spokesman, Asad Mansur.

“Our attacks will continue until a true sharia system is enforced in Pakistan,” the spokesman said, referring to Islamic law.

Islamic State (IS) also claimed responsibility for the attack in a message sent to journalists. Jamaat ur Ahrar and IS have jointly claimed responsibility for past attacks in Pakistan.

In the evening, several hundred kilometers to the northeast, two explosions in the town of Parachinar killed at least 27 people and wounded 120, a government official told Reuters.

The blasts were in a market and within three minutes of each other, senior government official Wazir Khan Wazir said. Parachinar is near the border with Afghanistan.

Many people were at the market buying food for iftar, the evening meal with which Muslims break the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan ends this weekend.

No group claimed responsibility for the Parachinar blasts.

In Baluchistan, provincial government spokesman Anwar ul Haq Kakar said the Quetta car bomb went off near the office of the inspector general (IG) of police.

“It’s possible the IG office was the target, or the assailants were trying to enter the cantonment which is close by,” he said, referring to an army housing area.

An official from Baluchistan’s bomb disposal unit said the car had contained up to 95 kg of explosives.

Television footage showed emergency workers rushing to the debris-strewn scene as security officials cordoned it off.

Quetta is about 100 km (60 miles) east of the border with Afghanistan.

Resource-rich Baluchistan province has been plagued by violence for years. Separatist rebels are battling government forces while Taliban and other militant Islamist groups also operate there.

Baluchistan is also a main center of Chinese-backed “Belt and Road” infrastructure and energy projects involving some $57 billion worth of investment across Pakistan.

Militants loyal to the Islamic State group abducted and killed two Chinese nationals in Quetta last month.

That attack prompted Pakistan to boost security for Chinese nationals and other foreigners in the province, which is already one of the most militarized regions in the country.

Late on Friday, in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and financial capital, four police were shot dead as they were observing the iftar meal to break the daily Ramadan fast, local TV and a security official said. </s> Karachi: At least two policemen were killed in a roadside blast in the troubled Balochistan province while 13 people were injured in two separate suicide bombings during Eid prayers on Tuesday targeting minority Shias in Pakistan's relatively peaceful southern Sindh province.

Two police officials were killed and 10 other injured in a blast near a police training centre on Quetta's Sariab road when militants targeted a police patrol vehicle in the area, police said.

Also, four suicide attackers infiltrated Shikarpur district's Khanpur tehsil, 470 kilometres north of Karachi, police said.

Two of the attackers targeted an Eid prayer ground where one assailant blew himself up, injuring 10 people, two of whom were policemen. The other attacker managed to flee, they said.

Two other suicide bombers targeted a Shia mosque but they were stopped at the entrance by policemen, which led to one of them blowing himself up while the other was arrested. Three policemen were injured in the attack, one of whom was critical. Last year, at least 61 people were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in the district.

"Alert" policemen at the venues prevented huge casualties, police officer Beherdin Kehrio told reporters. "If the policemen had not prevented these suicide bombers from entering the prayer venues there would have been largescale casualties because of the large gathering because of Eid prayers," he said.

He said the attackers at the Shia mosque were stopped by policemen as they looked suspicious and when confronted one of them detonated himself. "The other attacker was brought down and arrested," he added.

Those injured in the blast have been admitted to hospitals in Shikarpur for treatment. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan has been frequently hit by sectarian violence in recent years, most of them perpetrated by hardline Sunni Muslim groups against minority Shia Muslims. However, Sindh is considered a relatively peaceful of Pakistan's four provinces and is highly influenced by Sufi doctrines and principles.
A suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint in Quetta kills at least 13 people.