11 martyred in Quetta, Waziristan terror acts

QUETTA: At least 11 people, including eight policemen and two army soldiers, were martyred in different terrorism-related incidents in Quetta and North Waziristan Agency (NWA) on Wednesday.

In Quetta, at least eight people, including seven policemen, were martyred and many wounded in an apparent suicide blast targeting a police vehicle during the morning rush hour, officials said. One civilian passerby was also martyred in the incident.A group of elite police was targeted on the Sariab Road on the outskirts of Quetta as they were heading to their duty place.

“The police were targeted in this attack,” Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti told reporters, adding that seven policemen and one civilian had been killed. “Twenty-two others are injured,” he said.

A police official in Quetta gave a different toll, putting the figures at seven dead and 10 wounded, and said the attack came as the police were commuting to work. “We have sent teams to the site to help the victims,” he said.

Bugti said that a car rammed into the police vehicle before catching fire, adding it was “apparently a suicide attack”, in an account confirmed by senior police official Abdul Razzaq Cheema. Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for attack in Quetta.

Meanwhile, unknown armed men martyred a police inspector at the Qambarani Road near the Sariab area of Quetta on Wednesday. According to police sources, Police Inspector Abdul Salam was near the Qambrani Road when armed assailants opened indiscriminate fire at him and fled the scene. He died on the spot.

The body of the deceased was shifted to provincial civil hospital for legal formalities. Law enforcement agencies reached the site and cordoned off the entire area.Meanwhile, two soldiers were martyred in a roadside bomb blast in Khwaja Khwar area on the Bannu-Miranshah Road on Wednesday, official sources said. The sources said that a vehicle of security forces was on way to Bannu from Mir Ali tehsil of North Waziristan when it was targeted with an improvised explosive device in the Khwaja Khwar area in Frontier Region, Bannu. Two soldiers were martyred in the blast, the sources said, addingit was targeted with an improvised explosive device in Khwaja Khwar area in Frontier Region Bannu.

Two soldiers were martyred in the blast, the sources said, adding the vehicle was also damaged. The identity of the martyred soldiers could not be ascertained.

The security forces cordoned off the area soon after the incident and launched a search operation, they added. Traffic on the Bannu-Miranshah road was also suspended after the attack.

The sources said that the security forces arrested several suspected persons in the search operation. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and President Mamnoon Hussain strongly condemned the attacks. They prayed for the departed souls and commiserated with the bereaved families.

The prime minister said such type of cowardly acts could not deter the resolve of the nation against terrorism. Terror attacks could not shake unflinching national resolve against terrorism and extremism reiterated the premier while paying rich tributes to the police officials and army men who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

He directed the authorities concerned to provide best medical facilities to the injured people. Balochistan Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai and Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Khan Zehri also strongly condemned the terror attacks.

The other leaders who condemned the attacks included Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir and Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb.

National Assembly Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq also strongly condemned the Quetta and South Waziristan terror acts and expressed deep grief over loss of precious lives. In a statement issued here, he 1expressed heartfelt condolences over the loss of lives in the incidents.