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Chinese ambassador possible target of TTP car bomb at Quetta hotel that killed four


Pakistan: Deadly car bomb rocks luxury hotel in Quetta

[DW] A boom-mobile blast in the parking of a luxury hotel in southwestern Pakistain killed four and maimed at least 11, on Wednesday night.

The blast hit the Serena Hotel in the city of Quetta in 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. Police said responders took victims to nearby hospitals. Local TV channels flashed images of burning cars.

MILITANT GROUP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY
The hard boy group Tehrik-e-Taliban
...Arabic for students...
Pakistain grabbed credit for the attack. "It was a suicide kaboom in which our jacket wallah used his explosives-filled car in the hotel," the group told Rooters in a text message. The group has close links to al-Qaeda.

Senior police official Azhar Akram said officers were trying to determine whether the bomb was planted in a vehicle that was parked in the hotel's parking lot. Some security officials said the bomb went kaboom! minutes after a car entered the parking lot.

Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong had earlier in the day met provincial Chief Minister Jam Kamal in the city. It was not clear whether the blast was targeted at the envoy or members of the delegation.

The Serena hotel is near the Iranian Consulate and the provincial parliament building. Balochistan province, which is rich in mineral resources, has seen insurgency by local secessionists over the years. The Pak Taliban and "Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
" group also have a presence.
An Nahar adds:
Officials raised the corpse count to five.

Beijing said it strongly condemned the attack, although the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
said Pakistain security officials were the target of the blast.

The bomb was placed in a car parked at the Serena hotel -- part of a five-star chain popular with diplomats -- and detonated late Wednesday in the city of Quetta, capital of 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.

For years the TTP unleashed deadly attacks on urban centres across Pakistain from their bases along the Afghan border, where they provided shelter to an array of global jihadist groups including Al Qaeda.

But a massive military offensive launched in 2014 largely destroyed the group's command and control structure, dramatically reducing turban violence throughout Pakistain.

Analysts warn, however, that Pakistain has yet to tackle the root causes of extremism.

Balochistan is Pakistain's largest and poorest province despite being rich in natural resources.

Resentment has been fuelled by billions of dollars of Chinese money flowing into the region through the China-Pakistain Economic Corridor (CPEC) -- a key part of China's Belt and Road Initiative -- which locals say gave them little benefit as most new jobs went to outsiders.

In 2019 button men stormed a luxury hotel overlooking a flagship CPEC project -- the deep-water seaport in Gwadar that gives China strategic access to the Arabian Sea -- killing at least eight people.

And in June, Baloch forces of Evil targeted the Pakistain Stock Exchange, which is partly owned by Chinese companies.

Both attacks were claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army.
Posted by: trailing wife 2021-04-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=600221