A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people, majority police, outside a polio eradication center in Pakistan’s western city of Quetta on Wednesday, the latest militant attack on the anti-polio campaign in the country.
Advertisement
Ahsan Mehboob, the provincial police chief, confirmed to Reuters: “It was a suicide blast, we have gathered evidence from the scene”.
The campaign faced threats against polio vaccination teams issued by armed religious groups such as the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) and its allies in the past.
The dead and injured were shifted immediately by rescue teams to Civil Hospital were the condition of eight injured was reported critical by the paramedics.
Police say the bombing killed 12 officers, a soldier and a civilian.
One of the police officers who survived the blast said his team had been preparing to leave for various neighbourhoods around Quetta when they were hit.
“We were living in a conflict zone and hostile agencies were targeting us”, Sarfaraz Bugti said.
Police official Shahzada Farhat said the attack appeared to be a suicide bombing, but investigations are ongoing.
Hours after the attack, Ahmad Marwat, who described himself as a spokesman for Jundullah, or Army of God, a little-known militant group, claimed responsibility without explaining why the center was targeted.
But Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the banned Jaishul Islam, made a similar claim and said the attack had been carried out by his group to avenge the act of torturing the people in custody. Since the United States claimed the use of a phony vaccination program to track down Osama bin Laden, many in Pakistan have treated vaccination programs as probable shams or foreign plots.
Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio is endemic, and the attacks have hindered vaccination campaigns.
In 2014 the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan soared to 306, the highest in 14 years, falling to 52 in 2015.
Advertisement
The attack occurred in the city of Quetta, the capital of violence-plagued Balochistan province, and authorities say most of the casualties were security personnel.
