At least 14 people including 12 cops were killed and 24 others sustained serious injuries in an explosion near a polio vaccination centre in Quetta, Capital TV reported.
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“The suicide bomber detonated his explosives among the police officers, said Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti”. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by two different groups, according to Reuters: the Pakistani Taliban and the Taliban-linked Jundullah.
But officials say that 2015 also saw a significant decline in polio cases, largely because vaccination teams could reach areas that were previously off limits because of militancy.
The latest attack comes as a suicide bombing struck near the Pakistani consulate in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad city, killing two people just days after four-country talks aimed at reviving Taliban peace negotiations commenced in Islamabad. The extremists say the vaccination programme is aimed at sterilising children and a cover for Western spies.
Eye-witness Shabir Ahmed, a 32-year-old police constable, said he had been deployed to protect a polio vaccination team that was due to leave for various neighbourhoods of Quetta at 10am.
Rescuers gather the belongings of the victims at the blast site.
Twelve of those killed in the city of Quetta were police officers, local police chief Rab Nawaz Khan said.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also condemned the blast and prayed for eternal rest and peace for the departed souls.
This is one of the bloodiest attacks targeting a polio vaccination campaign in the Balochistan region in recent months.
He said the attack happened near a polio office and the bomber targeted the security personnel who were providing security to the staff in a three-day anti-polio campaign launched in the Balochistan province on Monday. He expressed his resolve to root out terrorism from the country. Over 55,000 children of Afghan refugees are to be immunised under the campaign.
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He expressed his sympathies to the people and government of Pakistan.
