Pakistan bombings death toll rises to 120
2013-01-11 13:03
Quetta -The death toll from a series of deadly bombings across Pakistan rose
Friday to 120, police said, marking one of the deadliest days the country has
seen in years.
Five people who were wounded in twin
bombings on a billiards hall late on Thursday died of their wounds overnight,
senior police official Hamid Shakeel from the southern city of Quetta said,
putting the death toll from that attack at 86.
The strike was the worst of three deadly
bombings targeting Shi’ites and soldiers in Quetta, capital of the volatile
Baluchistan province, and worshippers at a Sunni mosque in the northwest on the
same day. Funerals are expected later on Friday.
The billiards hall bombing, in a Shi’ite
area of the city, started with a suicide attack but was followed by a car bomb
minutes later in the same area.
Militants often use such staggered bombings as a way to maximize the body
count by targeting rescuers and others who rush to the scene after the first
explosion to help.
Target
Pakistan's minority Shi’ite Muslims have
increasingly been targeted by radical Sunnis who consider them heretics.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group with strong ties to the Pakistani
Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hazara Shi’ites, who migrated from Afghanistan more than a century ago, have
been the targets of dozens of attacks by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Quetta over the
past year, but Thursday's attack was by far the bloodiest.
Another bomb, hidden in a bag, went off
near a vehicle carrying paramilitary soldiers elsewhere in the city, killing 12
people and wounding more than 40 others. It had been spotted by a local
resident but was detonated by remote control before soldiers could react.
The United Baluch Army, a separatist
group, claimed responsibility for the attack in calls to local journalists.
Pakistan has faced a violent insurgency in Baluchistan for years from
nationalists who demand greater autonomy and a larger share of the country's
natural resources.
The third blast on Thursday targeted a
mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Mingora, killing 22 people and
wounding more than 70. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that
explosion.
- AP
