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Two killed in Pakistan mosque bomb blast
(mosque+blast) ~ (cheese+crackers)
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least two people were killed and more than two dozen injured after a blast at a mosque in southwestern Pakistain during Friday prayers, officials said.

Provincial police chief Mohsin Hassan Butt said the earth-shattering kaboom - the latest violence in a string of attacks in restive Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
province - was caused by a remotely detonated bomb in the town of Kuchlak.

"Two people including the prayer leader of the mosque have been killed and 25 others were maimed in an IED blast at a mosque," he said.

A second police official, Abdul Razzaq Cheema, confirmed the incident and casualty figures at the mosque, north of bustling provincial capital Quetta.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack.

Balochistan, Pakistain’s largest and poorest province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, is rife with holy warrior, separatist and sectarian insurgencies, even as incidents of violence have significantly dropped elsewhere in Pakistain.

Militants still retain the ability to carry out attacks, including on major urban centers and tightly-guarded targets, and analysts have long warned that Pakistain is yet to tackle the root causes of extremism.
Khaama Press adds:
An explosion in Quetta city of Pakistain has killed the brother of Mullah Haibatullah, the supreme leader of Taliban
...Arabic for students...
group.

Informed sources have told Rooters that the Hafizullah Ahmadullah, the brother of Mullah Haibatullah was killed in the earth-shattering kaboom along with three others.

A Taliban source has confirmed to Rooters that Ahmadullah was the younger brother of Mullah Haibatullah.

The Taliban group has not formally commented regarding the incident so far.

The explosion took place this afternoon inside a Madrassa in Kuchlak area located in the outskirts of Quetta city.
Update from the Jerusalem Post at 11:00 a.m. EDT:
Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada
...Former deputy to Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour, now The Big Man Himself...
was not in the mosque when the bomb went off. The Taliban leader's son was maimed, one of the sources said.

The mosque was known to be visited by members of the Afghan Taliban, the sources said.

"It was a timed device planted under the wooden chair of the prayer leader," said Abdul Razzaq Cheema, chief of police in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.

One of the sources, who visited the site after the blast, said security at the mosque was always very tight.

Separatist Lions of Islam and Islamist bully boyz are active in Balochistan but many in Pakistan are likely to suspect the Afghan government, which is battling the Taliban over the border in Afghanistan, of the blast.

Posted by: Fred 2019-08-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=548166