The death toll from Friday's blasts targeting security personnel and civilians in Quetta and Parachinar has risen to 85, with 24 more people injured passing away overnight.
Around 200 injured are still being treated and the condition of 15 is said to be critical. It is feared that the death toll may climb further, particularly in Parachinar where a second bomb was timed to target people rushing to help victims injured in the first explosion.
Read: Recent terror attacks linked to sanctuaries across border, says ISPR
Most of the casualties were reported in Parachinar's twin blasts, where Shahid Khan, a government official confirmed there were at least 67 dead and about 200 wounded.
District Headquarters Hospital Parachinar Medical Superintendent Dr. Sabir Hussain said they had received 261 victims of the twin blasts, with 62 listed in critical condition.
He said that army choppers airlifted 11 seriously injured people to Peshawar and added that some bodies might also have been taken away from the blast site.
Eyewitnesses in Parachinar said the first blast, which took place in the busy Turi Market where people were shopping for Eid, occurred minutes after an Al Quds Day rally had started dispersing at some distance from the scene of the attack.
Muhammad Hussain, who sustained injuries in the incident, told Dawn that he was heading for his poultry shop after the conclusion of the Al Quds rally when the first blast took place.
Another explosion shook the area soon after a large number of people rushed to the site to help the injured.
“I lost consciousness after the second blast and later found myself on a hospital bed,” Hussain said.
Kausar Ali, younger brother of Dawn Peshawar's senior correspondent Zulfiqar Ali, also lost his life in the Parachinar blast.
Kausar, who ran his business in the market, had rushed to the blast site to help the injured after the first explosion and died in the second blast.
The town, which has been caught in the crosshairs of militants for the past several years, sank into paralysis as communication links were broken soon after the incident.
“Better ask the hospital about death toll as we are dealing with a security situation,” a political administration official told Dawn when approached for comment.
Quetta explosion
Two outfits said they had carried out the suicide car bomb blast in Quetta — Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and, according to the AFP news service, the militant Islamic State group.
The attack left 14 — including seven policemen and a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Nazaryati) — dead, as well as more than 20 others injured.
The bombing took place in front of Balochistan police inspector general’s office at Shuhada Chowk.
Official sources said that a car had approached the IGP’s office from Gulistan Road at around 8:30am and rammed into the buffer of sandbags around the boundary of the Central Police Office (CPO).
According to an eyewitness, the attacker initially tried to enter the CPO premises, but drove into the sandbags instead.
Assuming that the car had veered into the bags by accident, the policemen on security duty in front of the IGP’s office helped push the car towards Shuhada Chowk.
They asked the driver to get out, but he refused. Then the bomb planted in the vehicle went off, killing seven people, including four policemen, on the spot.
“We received 13 bodies and 20 injured people,” said Wasim Baig, spokesperson for Quetta’s Civil Hospital.
“The roads linking to Shuhada Chowk were strewn with dismembered body parts,” Muhammad Zahid, who had witnessed the attack, told Dawn, adding that some bodies were beyond identification.
The injured included nine policemen, four army personnel, a girl and a woman, and the condition of at least five of them is said to be serious. The army men were taken to the Combined Military Hospital.
The bodies of 12 people were handed over to their families but one body could not be identified. The deceased include: Sajid Ali, Ghani Khan, Ghulam Shabbir, Faisal Khan, Sajjad Hussain, Muhammad Amin, Sanaullah, Anwar Ali, Muhammad Naeem, Lal Khan, Muhammad Kashif and Dr Abdul Rehman of the JUI-N.
Several other vehicles were damaged and the walls of a house in the Mission Girls School collapsed and windowpanes of surrounding buildings shattered.
Soon after the attack, officials of the Bomb Disposal Squad arrived at the site and collected evidence. They said the car had been carrying 90-95kg of explosives.
A high-level police team has been formed to investigate the blasts. The team includes Superintendent Police (SP) Counter-Terrorism, SP CIA and SP Investigation. Forensic experts will arrive in Quetta today.
Sources said that law enforcement agencies had received a threat alert for the possibility of such an attack.
Provincial government spokesperson Anwar-ul Haq Kakar said it was likely that attacker wanted to target the IGP’s office. However, the IGP was not in his office when the bomb went off, a constable said.
There are several important government offices in the vicinity of Shuhada Chowk, including the State Bank of Pakistan, the Army’s China check post, the entry to the Quetta Cantonment, and the residence of provincial home minister. A vehicle carrying army personnel was damaged in the blast, and a captain and three soldiers were injured.
Home Secretary Dr Akbar Harifal told reporters that security had been tightened in the provincial capital.
The funeral prayers of the seven policemen were later offered at Police Lines.
Interior minister calls on security officials to discuss situation
Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar on Saturday made telephonic contact with Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Bilal Akbar, Director General Sindh Rangers Maj Gen Muhammad Saeed and Inspector General Frontier Corps Balochistan Maj Gen Nadeem Ahmed on Saturday to assess the security situation in the country after the attacks.
The interior minister inquired about the progress in the investigation into incidents in Karachi, Parachinar and Quetta that occurred a day before.
"The perpetrators of these attacks want to create uncertainty about the security situation in the country," Chaudhary Nisar said.
"But these cowards will not be able to cripple the nation and rob us of our strength," he added.
Talking to the chief of general staff, Chaudhar Nisar pointed out that incidents of such nature spring up every time the Pak-Afghan border is opened up.
The interior minister said, "It is strange that every time there is any incident of terrorism in Afghanistan, they are quick to blame Pakistan for it; however there is no discussion in international forums about the terrorism that comes to Pakistan from across the border."
"It is important that we police our borders effectively and protect them from outside threats," he added.
"It should also be remembered that the provincial government was sent two alerts about possible attacks in Parachinar prior to yesterday's incident," Nisar said.
The interior minister directed DG Rangers Sindh to provide tight security to citizens, especially in the next few days.
He also paid tribute to the police officers that lost their life in the firing incident in Karachi on June 23.
With reporting by Hussain Afzal, Saleem Shahid, Shakeel Qarrar, Ali Akbar and Syed Ali Shah.
Comments (40) Closed
heart felt condolence.
praying the almighty for the peaceful world .
This has become regular affair in Pakistan. Need to take some urgent steps. Seems nobody is caring about the general public. Terror is a lot bigger issue than corruption. It will take decades to remove corruption from the subcontinent's psyche, but terror will perish the state itself.
RIP
All Devils indulging in this violence. As long as distinction remains between good and bad terrorists confusion about who is the culprit will remain. Uproot all these terror monsters without fear or favor, every single one of them irrespective of their affiliation.
@Feroz I fully agree with you. All Terror groups without distinction need to be eliminated. Ideology of hatred and killing of anybody who does not belong to terrorist type of faith must stop. All humans and their faiths needs to be respected.
@Feroz agree
Very very disgusting that too in the holy month of Ramadan .... When will this madness end ?? ... Almighty please help the humanity for peace to prevail
Just want to remind our eastern neighbor one thing if you use terrorism to destabilize other countries you're gonna face blowback maybe today,tommorow or after 10 years just look at UK Manchester bomber dad was a former MI6 operative who was given task to spread terror in libya
@Junaid Correct Junaid.
Keep statistic of happening's . If want to learn reason . It want to turn Blind eye towards its it will happen again and again.
@Junaid This is noted
@junaid. How do you know India is involved without any investigation?
CH nisar Resign now!
@Feroz : You are 100% right.
@Junaid : watch what you say. ISIS has claimed responsibility. ISIS is not your eastern neighbor. Accusing innocent neighbors will cause you more grief.
@Junaid got any proof?
all these groups are proxies and mercenaries - everyone is playing this dirty war..
This is so very very sad. The world does not notice what happens in Pakistan on a regular basis but quick to blame Pakistan. 63 innocent people are dead. I hope to God whoever is responsible will burn in hell over and over
@Junaid you are no different than the neighbor, who always blame Pakistan, even a pigeon is killed in their country. Fact finding should be done and then culprits should be punished without any pressure.
@NARADA MUNI "@Junaid : watch what you say. ISIS has claimed responsibility. ISIS is not your eastern neighbor. Accusing innocent neighbors will cause you more grief."
And where do you think ISIS in Afghanistan came from?
As has been extensively documented by leading international news outlets, ISIS in Afghanistan are made up of ex-Pakistan Taliban. For several years the regime in Kabul, with full backing and support of India's RAW, armed and sponsored the Pakistan Taliban. They provided sanctuary to many Pakistani Taliban like Maulana Fazullah in Nangahar, or their recently arrested spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan.
They were eventually defeated by the Pakistan Army. What then happened is many of their members in Afghanistan re-formed themselves under the banner of ISIS. They began to attack their former masters, the regime in Afghanistan, as well as attack Pakistan.
ISIS in Afghanistan would not have existed without Indian support for over 15 years to Afghanistan to hurt Pakistan.
Europe developed because there was peace in the region. And look at this region where there only war and hence this region is backward. It is shameful of both countries destabilizing one and another, each one is trying to push the other into hell by destroying them.
Who ever is involved where is the government. We need a capable and honest interior ministry. We are talking for too long.
Pakistan wants to defeat Afghanistan and Afghanistan wants to defeat Pakistan and this war is a long war with no clear winner and many innocent lives lost. Pakistan will have more lose to itself than Afghanistan in this war because Pakistan is more prosperous and developed than Afghanistan.
And a criminal silence prevails across electronic and social media. Perhaps there was no cricket match on that day....
People in the region want peace and hence politicians of respective government have talks and reconcile with each other.
it seems such attacks will continue because there won't be reconciliation between the two countries for many years time. Many innocent people would have to suffer the consequences of this war.
Pakistan reply to Afghanistan after this militant attack is we are resilient and hence will not be friend with Afghanistan. Afghanistan reply to Pakistan after a militant attack is we are resilient and hence we will not be friends with Pakistan. There seem to be no political solution between Afghanistan and Pakistan which is unfortunate.
Let the Afghanistan and Pakistan not celebrate each others loss. Many Pakistanis celebrate the loss of Afghan live and similarly Afghans celebrate Pakistanis loss of life this two should stop. Common people have become canon fodder for militants in the two countries.
Spineless leaders are responsible for this.
Pakistan Foreign office statement - Pakistan will not be friends with Afghanistan, Pakistan can withstand take on 10,000 militant attacks a million people killed in those attacks, then too Pakistan will fight with Afghanistan for 10,000 years, we will kill 2 million people, with 20,000 attacks inside Pakistan.
So sad, my heart is crying for Parachinar's people, RIP Martyred of Parachinar and Quetta.
May ASWT raise the deceased in Jannat
@Syed H : George Orwell once said: "To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle". From your detailed comment I can only observe that you refuse to undertake that struggle ... and so you can't see what is literally in front of your own nose ...
If you want to live in a fools paradise, so be it ...
@shameful look back in Past and tell who has started first so pls stop playing card of Kashmir, thing will automatically stop.
@Syed H "As has been extensively documented by leading international news outlets, ISIS in Afghanistan are made up of ex-Pakistan Taliban." and sir who exactly created Taliban? Now its very easy to blame it on USA and SA, but who is the key? Isn't it us? When do we realize that we are evil and start accepting our deeds and correct ourselves?
RIP I wish the government was able to provide security for its citizens
Only condolences would not work . The government and army need to find those responsible and bring them to justice !
@Outsider well said
@Feroz very well said.
@Junaid "if you use terrorism to destabilize other countries you're gonna face blowback maybe today,tommorow or ..."
you are right. Pakistan is indeed suffering from the deeds of its past policy makers. It is unfortunate that innocent men and women are killed and crippled for the misplaced policies and geopolitical games indulged in by the establishment. RIP to all those affected.