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PAKISTAN-UNREST-SOUTHWEST
One dead, over a dozen injured in mosque blast in southwest Pakistan:
police
QUETTA, Pakistan, May 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least one person was killed
and more than a dozen injured by a blast at a mosque in southwestern
Pakistan’s Quetta Friday, according to police, the latest incident in restive
Balochistan province.
The blast occurred at a mosque on the outskirts of the provincial capital.
However, officials have not confirmed if the explosion was caused by an
attack.
“Three of the injured are in a critical condition including the prayer
leader as the blast occurred near him,” Quetta’s police chief Abdur Razzaq
Cheema told AFP.
The explosion was also confirmed by officials at the government-run
Sandeman hospital where the injured are being treated.
It comes as residents flocked to the mosque for Friday prayers during the
holy fasting month of Ramadan.
There have been no claims of responsibility for the incident.
The blast comes weeks after a suicide blast claimed by the Islamic State
group in provincial capital Quetta killed at least 20 people.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and poorest province which borders
Afghanistan and Iran, is rife with Islamist, separatist and sectarian
insurgencies, even as incidents of violence have significantly dropped
elsewhere in Pakistan.
But militants still retain the ability to carry out attacks, including in
major urban centres and tightly-guarded targets, and analysts have long
warned that Pakistan is yet to tackle the root causes of extremism.
Balochistan is key to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of
Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative.
CPEC seeks to connect China’s western province of Xinjiang with Gwadar,
giving Beijing access to the Arabian Sea.
BSS/AFP/RY/1550 hrs