At least 13 people were killed and 30 wounded on Tuesday night after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a stadium in southwest Pakistan. Supporters of a nationalist party were exiting a rally during the time of the attack, according to police and hospital officials on Wednesday.
Majeed Qaisrani, the chief of local police, informed the explosion occurred around a graveyard near the stadium on the edges of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. The attacker’s body parts were found, said Qaisrani.
Spokesman for a government hospital Waseem Baig said 13 bodies were recived by the hospital and several others were critically injured.
No responsibility was claimed for the attack, reports AP/UNB.
The bombing occurred during a rally marking the death anniversary of veteran nationalist leader and former provincial chief minister Sardar Ataullah Mengal.
Akhtar Mengal, the leader of the Balochistan National Party, was not injured in the attack, although some of his supporters were killed or wounded, as reported by senior police officer Usama Ameen. Mengal, an outspoken critic of the government, frequently holds demonstrations calling for the release of missing Baloch nationalists.
The Chief Minister of Balochistan, Sarfraz Bugti, condemned the bombing as a “cowardly act of the enemies of humanity” and ordered top-notch medical care for the injured, along with a high-level investigation to ensure justice is served.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the attack, accusing “India-backed terrorists and their facilitators” of attempting to destabilise the country by targeting civilians. However, he did not provide evidence to substantiate the claim.
Pakistan’s government and Bugti in recent months have frequently accused India of backing both the Pakistani Taliban and Baloch separatists, a charge New Delhi denies.
Balochistan has long been the site of an ongoing insurgency, with groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army seeking independence from the central government. These separatists typically focus their attacks on security forces and workers from Pakistan’s Punjab province.
