Thursday was the bloodiest day in Pakistan in recent times, and in a country that is being devastated by militants, that is saying something. The capital of the troubled province of Balochistan, Quetta, was hit by three separate bomb blasts, leaving over 100 people dead. While hospitals in the city cope with hundreds of people who were injured in the devastating blasts, funeral prayers for the deceased were carried out today. The attacks have received widespread condemnation from people belonging to all walks of life, including the government, politicians, and civil society at large.
Twelve people were killed as a car bomb went off near a Frontier Corps vehicle on the roads of Quetta. However, that was just the start of a day that would soon prove to be one of the bloodiest in the history of the city. According to eyewitnesses, a second bomb blast took place inside a crowded snooker room in the heart of the city. As emergency workers, police officials and the media rushed to the site, a third bomb exploded right outside the same building. Due to the large crowds prevalent at the site of both explosions, the number of casualties was unusually high.
Police officials claimed that the explosion that occurred inside the snooker club was a suicide blast, and the one that occurred right outside the very building was a car bomb blast. The latter two attacks occurred in a primarily Shia minority locality, raising fears of further sectarian tension in the already divided state. Soon after the blasts, a Sunni extremist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that they targeted the predominantly Shia Hazara community which has settled into Quetta. Earlier in the day, the United Baloch Army (UBA) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Frontier Corps vehicle.
Balochistan has witnessed unprecedented violence ever since the independence of Pakistan. Various separatists groups have constantly attempted to implement their own agendas through the use of limitless violence on innocent citizens. A number of major army operations in the province have failed to curtail such violence in the long run. The government has failed to negotiate with the number of groups. Sectarian conflicts between Shia and Sunnis have also caused immense loss of life over the past couple of decades. Balochistan-based nationalist groups have continually targeted frontier corps forces as well as other army personnel since they detest the presence of the army in their homeland.
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