Dawn – Terror attack on election candidates continues

Shikarpur, Quetta, 1 May 2013. At least two people were injured in a suicide attack which occurred near the Shikarpur toll plaza on Wednesday, DawnNews reported.

The blast took place near the convoy of National Peoples Party’s candidate Dr Ibrahim Jatoi in Shikarpur who remained unhurt.

In another incident, three people were reported injured when a bomb exploded in Balochistan’s Dera Murad Jamali region.

The blast took place near the convoy of an independent candidate for PB-32, Allah Dino, in the district’s Kachchi Pul area.

Rescue teams had reached the site of the attack and started an operation.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party alleged that they were being compelled to boycott the May 11 elections.

Senator Shahi Syed of ANP, Rehman Malik of PPP and Dr Farooq Sattar of MQM addressed a joint press conference at MQM’s ‘Nine Zero’ headquarters over the attacks targeting candidates and workers of the three parties.

During the press talk, Dr Sattar said world powers wanted to bring a government of rightwing parties in Pakistan just to ensure their safe exit from Afghanistan.

Protesters block National Highway over Abdul Fateh Magsi’s killing

Moreover, supporters and relatives of Abdul Fateh Magsi, the slain candidate for PB-32 (Jhal Magsi), blocked the National Highway linking Sindh and Balochistan on Wednesday in order to protest his killing.

Long queues of vehicles were witnessed on the National Highway during the road’s blockade. Later, however, protesters agreed to clear the highway following negotiations with the administration.

http://dawn.com/2013/05/01/blast-in-dera-murad-jamali/

BBC News – Pakistan’s Musharraf barred from May polls

Tuesday, 16 April 2013. Pakistan’s former military leader Pervez Musharraf has been barred from standing in general elections in May.

An election tribunal disqualified him from running in Chitral in the north-west. Earlier, he failed in an attempt to stand in three other seats.

Mr Musharraf’s lawyer says he plans to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, at least four people were killed in an attack on a convoy of the main opposition PML-N party in the south-western province of Balochistan.

Pervez Musharraf returned from self-imposed exile in Dubai and London last month saying he wanted to save Pakistan, hoping to lead his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) party into the general election next month.

Legal battles

On his return, Mr Musharraf submitted papers to contest the poll from Karachi, Islamabad, Kasur and Chitral.

While Mr Musharraf was given initial approval to run in Chitral, he was rejected in the remaining constituencies.

His opponents later filed an appeal against the decision to approve his candidacy in Chitral on the grounds that he had violated Pakistan’s constitution when he imposed emergency rule in 2007.

The former general seized power in a military coup in 1999 and remained in office until 2008 when his supporters were defeated in parliamentary elections. Under threat of impeachment, he left the country.

He is already embroiled in a series of legal battles and has been attempting to stave off arrest and a bid to try him for treason.

He is facing a number of charges related to his time in office with court proceedings over the killing of Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and a tribal leader from Balochistan.

He has described the cases against him as “baseless” and politically motivated.

In addition to his legal and political woes, the Pakistani Taliban have vowed to target him with a squad of suicide bombers.

“His paper has been rejected by the high court. We will file an appeal in the Supreme Court,” Mr Musharraf’s lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri told AFP.

But after the tribunal’s latest decision and if an appeal fails, Mr Musharraf will be ruled out of the running.

Separatist threats

There was no immediate claim for the attack in Balochistan. Correspondents say the area where the attack took place has no Taliban presence and is known to be a hotbed of separatist rebel activity.

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan says that militant threats against secular politicians and parties, such as the ruling PPP and ANP, are hampering their election campaigns.

The brother, son and nephew of the leader of the PML-N party, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, were killed in the bomb attack in Kuzdar in Balochistan, according to officials.

Mr Zehri narrowly escaped an earlier IED attack in Kalat area of Balochistan in October 2011. The attack was claimed by an armed separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF).

Most election violence in Pakistan takes place in the north-west of the country and secular parties such as the ANP, in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and the ruling PPP have borne the brunt of such attacks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22165497

Dawn – Hazaras warn of communities’ segregation

Islamabad, Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1434; 27 February 2013. Leaders of the Shia Hazara community said in the Supreme Court on Tuesday that any knee-jerk reaction by the authorities in Balochistan could cause segregation of communities which might further fan sectarian violence in the country.

“We are not interested in taking revenge but want that culprits involved in the gruesome Hazara Town bombing be sternly dealt with in accordance with the law,” former senator Abbas Kumaili told a three-judge bench which rejected as unsatisfactory a report submitted by the Balochistan government on measures taken to ensure peace in Quetta.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice of unabated killings of the Shia Hazara community.

“We are not interested in any compensation; we want peace,” said Agha Nasir Ali Shah, a PPP MNA.

Abbas Kumaili regretted that the 16 February Hazara Town bombing was not an isolated incident; the killing of Shia leaders had begun in 1993, but the successive governments had failed to take any action despite repeated appeals and warnings.

He said he feared that such incidents might spread to other cities and towns if the root cause was not identified and real culprits were not arrested. Only a Swat-like operation in Balochistan could ensure restoration of peace in Quetta.

“We are not asking for handing over Quetta to the army,” Mr Kumaili said, adding that in curbing terrorist activities the prolonged silence of and negligence on the part of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies were meaningful.

He submitted a list of incidents that have taken place since 1993 in which a large number of people belonging to the Shia community were ruthlessly killed. Even pilgrims going to Iran were butchered and their buses burnt on return, especially in Mastung area.

http://dawn.com/2013/02/27/hazaras-warn-of-communities-segregation/

Dawn – Action against suspected militants in Khyber Agency and Balochistan

Seven militants killed in Khyber Agency

Landi Kotal, 24 February 2013. At least seven militants were killed and some of their hideouts destroyed in air strikes and a clash in Tirah and Bara areas of Khyber Agency on Sunday.

Officials said that fighter planes bombed Taliban positions in Kukikhel area of Tirah.

The aerial bombing resulted in killing of four Taliban and destruction of three of their hideouts in Sra Vella and surrounding localities, officials claimed.

In Bara, security forces conducted a day long search operation in Nala and Arjali Nadi localities.

Officials said that in a shoot-out with militants in Nala, three activists of Lashkar-i-Islam were killed as the forces made advances into the area.

At Arjali Nadi, according to local sources, militants torched two military vehicles before they broke the cordon of security forces.

They said that militants put up some fierce resistance at Arjali Nadi before fleeing the area.

At Torkham, border guards apprehended an Afghan national and recovered from his possession five kilogrammes of gold and some foreign currency.

http://dawn.com/2013/02/25/seven-militants-killed-in-khyber-agency/

Two killed in targeted operation

Staff Correspondent

Quetta, 25 February 2013. Two armed suspects were killed and five others arrested by the Frontier Corps in a targeted operation in Gulistan area of the Qila Abdullah district on Sunday, official sources said.

The FC personnel moved in the Killi Abdul Rehman Zai area on a tip-off about the presence of some suspects there.

The sources said that the unidentified suspects opened fire at FC personnel when they cordoned off the area and in the ensuing shootout that continued for half an hour two suspects were killed and an FC man was injured.

Five suspects were captured and an unspecified quantity of rocket launchers, hand-grenades, AK-47 rifles and explosives was seized.

A group of local tribesmen blocked the Quetta-Chaman highway in protest against the operation, suspending the traffic for an hour. The traffic was restored after local administration and Levies removed hurdles from the highway.

http://dawn.com/2013/02/25/two-killed-in-targeted-operation/

Dawn – Hazara killings; Chief Justice says intelligence should be shared with Law Enforcement Agencies, not courts

Islamabad, 21 February 2013. During Thursday’s hearing of the suo motu notice taken of unabated killings of the Hazara community, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remarked that intelligence was supposed to be shared with law-enforcement agencies and not with the court, DawnNews reported.

A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar was hearing the case.

During the proceedings, the chief justice moreover inquired as to what was the assurance that such incidents would not occur in the future.

Nasir Ali Shah, a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA from Balochistan, told the court that some 1,500 people had been killed between 2002 and 2013.

Shah added that members of the Hazara community had buried their dead but were fearful of more attacks.

The hearing was adjourned to 11:30 am due to the absence of certain officials who had been summoned to appear before the bench.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had claimed before the bench that it had forewarned of the carnage in which over 87 innocent Shia Hazaras lost their lives in Quetta.

“A huge consignment of explosives was being transported,” the ISI had stated in a report submitted to the bench.

Read out by Director Legal of the Ministry of Defence Commander Shahbaz, the ISI report had said that despite being in a crude form, the information had been passed on (to the provincial government) about an imminent bomb blast.

It said the terrorists had taken advantage of water scarcity in Hazara Town and sent a tanker loaded with 800-1,000 kilograms of explosives.

Operation against Lashkar-i-Jhangvi

On Wednesday, the federal government had announced that the operation launched against the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) would continue until the arrest of its entire leadership.

Briefing reporters after a meeting of the federal cabinet, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira had stated that all law-enforcement agencies were participating in the operation which had led to the killing of four LJ members and arrest of 170 people allegedly involved in carrying out attacks on Hazara Shias.

“We assure everybody in the country that the government will take the ongoing operation to its logical conclusion.”

http://dawn.com/2013/02/21/hazara-killings-cj-says-intelligence-should-be-shared-with-leas-not-courts/

The Hindu – Hazara Shias protest with their dead against sectarian violence

Anita Joshua

Islamabad, 17 February 2013.  The death toll in Saturday’s bomb blast near Hazara Town in Quetta climbed to 84 and triggered another wave of protest across the country against sectarian violence and the inability of the powers that be to round up the terrorists unleashing such carnage with regular impunity.

Most of the dead were Hazara Shias; a community that has been repeatedly targeted over the past couple of years.

The dead included many women and children; some of whom were charred beyond recognition because of the fire that followed the massive explosion heard all over Quetta.

The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attack and said the target was the Shia community of Hazara Town. Along with their dead, members of the Hazara Shia community picketed a thoroughfare of Quetta on Sunday demanding action against LeJ and refusing to bury those killed until those responsible were rounded up.

A similar protest in January – following serial blasts in Quetta targeting the Hazara Shias – saw the federal government dismiss the provincial government and declare Governor’s Rule in Balochistan. Since Governor’s Rule and more powers to the security forces in the province has had little impact on sectarian violence, the Hazara Shias this time round have become more vocal in demanding action against LeJ despite the inherent risks in naming the organisation that wants Shias to be declared infidels in Pakistan.

Even as protests spread to different parts of the country – including Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi – mass graves were dug up in Quetta for the burial of those killed in the blast. Emotionally drained by the unrelenting attack on their community, the Hazara Shias lamented that they now had no burial space for their dead; such is the rate at which they are being killed.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/hazara-shias-protest-with-their-dead-against-sectarian-violence/article4425210.ece

Dawn – Quetta blast death toll reaches 79

Quetta, 17 February 2013. A suicide-bomb targeting Shia Hazaras in a busy market in Pakistan’s restive southwest killed 79 people including women and children and wounded 180 others, officials said Sunday.

The powerful bomb in a water tanker ripped through a packed bazaar near Hazara town, an area dominated by Shias on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of oil and gas rich Balochistan province, at around 6:00 pm (local time) on Saturday.

“We have recovered more dead bodies from the debris of a collapsed building. The death toll has now risen to 79,” senior Quetta police official Wazir Khan Nasir told AFP,

Quetta city police chief Zubair Mehmood said the water tanker, which officials said was packed with some 800 kilograms  of explosives, was placed near a pillar of a two-storey building, which collapsed in the blast.

“We fear that several people have been trapped inside. Rescue work is ongoing but I see very little chance of their survival,” Mehmood said.

Nasir said the bombing “was a sectarian attack, the Shia community was the target”.

A spokesman for the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said the dead and injured included women and children, and confirmed reports of people trapped under rubble at the site of the collapsed building.

“We fear more casualties. We have announced an emergency in hospitals,” he told AFP.

Officials and witnesses said an angry mob initially surrounded the area following the bombing and were not allowing police, rescue workers and reporters to reach the site.

“They were angry and started a protest, some of them pelted police with stones,” Durrani said, adding that authorities and medical personnel were eventually able to gain access.

Governor Balochistan Nawab Zulifqar Ali Magsi announced a day of mourning for today over the incident.

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain also condemned the incident.

The Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) and the MQM also announced for a day of mourning to be observed on Sunday.

Sayed Qamar Haider Zaidi, Tehreek Nafaz-i-Fiqh-i-Jafriya (TNFJ) central information secretary, condemned the Pakistani government for not providing protection to the community and announced three days of mourning and protest over the attack.

Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has increasingly become a flashpoint for sectarian violence between Pakistan’s majority Sunni Muslims and Shias, who account for around a fifth of the country’s 180 million people.

At least 93 people were killed and 121 wounded on January 10 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a crowded snooker club in an area of Quetta city dominated by the Shia community.

It was Pakistan’s worst sectarian bombing, also claimed by (LeJ), and came after what Human Rights Watch (HRW) said was the deadliest year on record for the country’s Shias, with more than 400 people killed in 2012, mostly in drive-by shootings.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf late last month sacked the provincial government in Balochistan after meeting Shia Muslim protesters demanding protection.

The province is also rife with militants and hit by a regional insurgency which began in 2004, with fighters demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s natural resources.

http://dawn.com/2013/02/17/quetta-blast-death-toll-reaches-79/

Dawn – Quetta’s dead remain unburied: Nationwide protest over carnage

Quetta, 13 January 2013. As the devastated Shia protesters in Quetta continued their vigil over the unburied bodies of their loves ones, their grief was felt across the country as members of the Shia and Hazara communities and civil society came out on the streets of various cities of Pakistan on Saturday.

From Karachi to Islamabad, Shia parties such as Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) and the Imamia Students Organisation (ISO) as well as civil society activists gathered to protest the three blasts in Quetta on Thursday which claimed over a hundred lives – most of them of Shia and Hazaras.

On Friday, distraught relatives of the victims had begun a protest in Quetta. Accompanied by coffins holding the bodies of those killed on Thursday, they said they would not move or bury their loved ones till the army took control of Quetta.

By Saturday, a stunned nation appeared to have rallied around in support of the protesters by holding protests. In Islamabad, a protest organised by Shia groups blocked a main road for several hours. Although the protesters dispersed late in the night, they promised to return for a peaceful demonstration on Sunday morning.

Activists of the Shia Ulema Council, Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen and Imamia Students Organisation also took out rallies in major cities of Punjab and held a demonstration outside the Governor’s house in Lahore which continued till late into the night.

Sindh also witnessed similar protests as did Peshawar.

As this wave of protests hit the headlines by Saturday afternoon, the apathetic political leadership began to wake up.

Till then they continued to be preoccupied with shenanigans such as the march of Maulana Tahirul Qadri; this is lent credence by the fact that the only PPP leader who visited Quetta on Saturday to talk to protesters was Khursheed Shah.

His efforts at placating the protesters proved ineffective. The only other politician who appeared at the scene was Balochistan Governor Zulfiqar Magsi, who did little beyond expressing his lack of powers and firing a few verbal rounds at the provincial government and Mr Shah.

The prime minister woke up late in the evening – metaphorically – to call the governor; grant police powers to the Frontier Corps (FC) in Balochistan, and order an ever missing Chief Minister Aslam Raisani to immediately return to the country from Dubai. According to his spokesman, the provincial head was getting his throat treated.

There were reports that the prime minister may meet some Hazara leaders on Sunday.

Other parties followed suit. Phone calls were made as the prime minister called his ministers and other leaders and Altaf Hussain, the Muttahida chief, called government officials from London.

The MQM held a press conference in Karachi where a distraught Hazara leader addressed the media. He could only lament that no one from the government had turned up to share the grief of the victims. The MQM leaders promised their support for the victims.

However, in Rawalpindi, where the military’s headquarters are located, there was silence. There was no word from the military that has been called upon to take over Quetta and which has been critised by many in the past 48 hours.

An ISPR official said the army can be called in by the civil administration and the provincial government.

http://dawn.com/2013/01/13/quettas-dead-remain-unburied-nationwide-protest-over-carnage/

BBC News – Pakistan blasts: Shia refuse to bury Quetta bomb dead

Saturday, 11 January 2013. Pakistan’s minority Shia community has protested angrily over what it says is a lack of protection in the city of Quetta, a day after almost 100 people died there in a series of blasts.

Leaders of the community have refused to bury the dead until security is improved.

One Shia leader publicly criticised army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.

Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi said it carried out the deadliest attack in Quetta on Thursday.

Three days of mourning have been announced in Balochistan province after the blasts in its capital, on one of the deadliest days of bombings in Pakistan in recent years.

At least 119 people were killed in Quetta and in a separate attack in Mingora in the north-west.

‘Hell on Earth’

The worst attack targeted a snooker hall late on Thursday evening in Alamdar Road in Quetta. One suicide bomber detonated his device and a car bomb was detonated minutes later as police, rescuers and media arrived.

Most of the dead were from Quetta’s 500,000-strong Hazara Shia.

Members of the community on Friday laid coffins in the street, refusing to bury them.

The president of the Shia Conference, Syed Dawood Agha, told the BBC that his community would not bury its dead till the army had given an assurance it would take administrative control of the city.

A relative of one of the victims, Fida Hussain, said: “We want safety for our all sects, and all security measures should be taken for our safety. We will not bury them until the government fulfils all our demands.”

One resident, Jan Ali, told Associated Press that Thursday’s blast at the snooker hall was “a scene like hell on Earth”.

“Rescue people were carrying out dead and injured, people bleeding and crying, and rushing them toward ambulances.

I have never seen such a horrifying situation in my life.”

Among the dead was Quetta-based rights activist, Irfan Ali, who was reportedly helping those wounded in the first blast.

Another resident, Abbas Ali, told AP news agency: “This government has totally failed in protecting us. Somehow we will get compensation for our losses but those who have gone away will not come back.”

Key Shia leader Maulana Amin Shaheedi criticised what he said was the inaction of General Kayani.

He said: “I ask the army chief: ‘What have you done with these extra three years you got [in office]? What did you give us except more death?’”

Shia protesters also turned out in the port city of Karachi to demonstrate their anger at the killings.

‘Separatist attack’

At least 85 people were killed at the snooker hall, with more than 100 injured.

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has in the past targeted the area’s Hazara Shia.

Earlier, a bomb in a market area killed 12 people and injured dozens more.

Paramilitary personnel of the Frontier Corps appeared to be the target.

A spokesman for militant group, the United Baloch Army, said it had carried out that bombing.

Balochistan is plagued by a separatist rebellion as well as the sectarian infighting.

The Taliban and armed groups that support them also carry out attacks in the province, particularly in areas near the Afghan border.

Also on Thursday, at least 22 people were killed and more than 80 injured in an explosion near Mingora in Pakistan’s north-western Swat valley.

The blast took place at a religious gathering.

Police initially said the explosion was caused by a gas canister, but a senior official later said it was a bomb.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20989329

Dawn – At least 93 lives lost in Quetta explosions

Quetta, 11 January 2013. As many as 81 people were killed and 121 injured in suicide and car bomb blasts in Quetta’s Alamdar Road area on Thursday night.

Earlier in the afternoon, 12 people lost their lives when a bomb went off near a vehicle of the Frontier Corps at Bacha Khan Chowk.

A cameraman and a reporter of a private news channel, a computer operator of a news agency and nine police personnel, including two senior police officers, were among the dead, while 10 army and FC personnel were injured in the blasts.

A majority of the people killed in the Alamdar Road blasts belonged to the Hazara Shia community.

The banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

“Eighty-one people have been killed and 120 injured, including 10 army and FC personnel, in two blasts,” Hamid Shakeel, Deputy Inspector General of Police, told Dawn.

The death toll might go up because the condition of several injured people was serious, he added.

Police sources said that the first blast took place in a snooker club on Alamdar Road when people were busy playing the game. Several people were killed or injured in the blast. “A man entered the snooker club and a powerful blast took place,” they said, adding that it appeared to be a suicide attack.

Police, workers of Edhi Trust and media teams rushed to the place soon after the first blast and started taking the injured to hospital.

A second blast took place 10 minutes after the first blast outside the snooker club when a large number of people, police and rescue workers gathered there. A majority of people were killed and injured in the second blast.

Five police personnel, including a senior police officer, and three media men also lost their lives in the second blast.

Reporter Saifullah Baloch and cameraman Imran Shaikh belonged to Samaa TV, while computer operator Mohammad Iqbal worked for NNI.

Some other media men, who reached the site to cover the first blast, were also injured in the second explosion.

Imran Shaikh was the third Samaa cameraman to have lost his life in the line of duty. Earlier, Ejaz Ahmed Raisani and Malik Arif had been killed in bomb blasts.

Police said that an explosive-laden car parked at the roadside was used in the second explosion. Both the blasts shook the entire provincial capital.

“The building which housed the snooker club was destroyed completely, while over 50 shops and nearby houses were badly damaged,” eyewitness Khalil Ahmed said.

Two rescue workers were also killed in the blast, he added.

Soon after the second blast, power supply was disrupted in the area as wires snapped. “Bodies littered a large area,” another eyewitness Banaras Khan told Dawn, adding that several media men were missing. A DSNG of Geo TV was damaged in the second explosion. A cameraman received injuries while other staffers remained unhurt.

Rescue workers and security personnel faced difficulty in collecting bodies and in shifting the injured to hospital.

An emergency was declared at Civil Hospital and the Combined Military Hospital. Most of the injured and bodies were brought to CMH. The condition of at least 10 of the injured was stated to be critical.

“The death toll might increase,” hospital officials expressed fears.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Lashkar-i-Jhangvi told media from an unknown place that his organisation had carried out the two explosions.

Capital City Police Officer Zubair Mehmood confirmed at a press conference the killing of 81 people and injuring of 121 in the two blasts.

“A doomsday scenario was at the blast site. Bodies were lying everywhere.”

Mr Mehmood said that nine police officials had lost their lives.

Earlier in the afternoon, at least 12 people, including an FC soldier and a child, were killed and over 60 injured in a bomb blast before the night-time carnage shook the city.

The bomb was planted close to a parked vehicle of Frontier Corps at the crowded Bacha Khan Chowk. The blast rocked the entire city Several other FC men were injured in the blast, Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told Dawn, adding that the condition of at least five people was serious.

Among the injured were two women and three children.

Frontier Corps officials confirmed that one soldier had been killed and 10 others injured in the blast. “We have lost one soldier in the blast and another is in critical condition,” a spokesman said.

An Afghan national, who hailed from Spin-Boldak, a border district of Afghanistan, was also killed in the blast.

The banned United Baloch Army has claimed responsibility for the blast. Its spokesman Mureed Baloch told newsmen that the blast was in revenge for Mashkay, Awaran and Bolan operations launched by FC.

The area where the blast took place is a populated and busy commercial junction where thousands of people come for shopping and doing business in Baldia Plaza.

“Thousands of people were busy shopping and in doing business in Baldia Plaza and in the Bacha Khan Chowk when the blast took place,” said eyewitness Mehmood Khan, who owns a shop in the area.

Police sources said that the bomb planted with a time device in a bag close to the FC vehicle went off at 3.10 pm, killing at least 10 people on the spot and injuring over 60.

Police and FC personnel cordoned off the place and took the bodies and the injured to Civil Hospital, where an emergency had been declared.

Two injured, including the FC soldier, died in hospital as they had received multiple wounds.

“The target of the bomb blast was the vehicle carrying FC men and a checkpost in the area,” said Capital City Police Officer Zubair Mehmood.

He told reporters that it was a time device. “We have collected evidence from the site and investigation is in progress,” he said.

Bomb disposal squad personnel said that 20 to 25 kg of explosives had been used in the blast.

Hospital sources said that 11 bodies and over 40 injured were brought to the Civil Hospital. Some of the injured had been shifted to CMH, Quetta. “We are trying to save lives of seriously injured people,” hospital officials said.

Most of the people killed in the blast were vendors and shopkeepers selling old clothes, rings, soup and other edible items outside Baldia Plaza.

Two Naib Tehsildars, who came from the Taunsa town of Rajanpur district in Punjab, were also killed.

Eight of the 12 dead were identified as Naib Tehsildars Ghulam Sarwar Qaisrani and Inayatullah, Mazuddin, Ziaul Haq, Fazal Ahmed, Sher Ali, Akhtar Mohammad and Tamour Shah.A man selling fruits on a pushcart had reportedly seen a white bag near the FC vehicle and informed the paramilitary force’s personnel before the bomb exploded. However, he remained safe, sources said.

The FC vehicle and about a dozen other cars and motorcycles were destroyed in the blast. About two dozen shops were damaged while windowpanes of several buildings and offices in Baldia plaza were smashed.

http://dawn.com/2013/01/11/at-least-93-lives-lost-in-quetta-explosions/