A suicide bombing killed at least 15 people outside a polio eradication center in Quetta, Pakistan, on Wednesday, detonating just as a police escort had arrived to accompany vaccination workers in the southeastern province of Balochistan.
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At least 20 people were killed and more than 20 injured in two terror attacks outside the Pakistan Consulate in Jalalabad and near a polio centre in Quetta today.
“There are 15 dead, including 12 police, one paramilitary, and two civilians”, a local police official told AFP.
Pakistan is one of the three countries in the world where polio is endemic, and Taliban attacks have badly hampered vaccination campaigns.
The militant group Jundullah, which has links to the Pakistani Taliban and has pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State, has claimed responsibility.
Some militant groups believe the anti-polio campaign is part of a Western conspiracy created to sterilize children, The Guardian said.
According to officials, the attacker detonated his suicide jacket near the vehicles of security personnel.
“The blast is under investigation, and there has been no claim of responsibility, he said”.
Ahmed Marwat, who identified himself as a commander and spokesman for Jundullah, said the group was responsible.
Polio vaccination programs have been targeted by militants in Pakistan in the past, and police escorts at the centers are routine.
The three-day vaccination drive in Baluchistan and Pakistan’s tribal belt, near the Afghan border, began Monday and was due to reach 2.4 million children younger than 5, including more than 55,000 children of Afghan refugees, officials said.
The most recent attack came in November previous year, when unidentified gunmen shot and killed the head of an immunisation programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district.
Condemning the incident, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the government was committed to stamping out extremism from the country and the operation will continue till elimination of terrorism. Tens of thousands have been killed in Pakistan over the past decade in attacks mainly targeting security forces and the country’s Shiite minority.
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Pakistani Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurrasani has owned up to the bombing of the Quetta vaccination center on the Taliban’s behalf, the Times reported. Nine of the 25 injured were listed in critical condition, he added.
