Pakistani police have rounded up 50 suspects as investigations continue into a courtroom suicide bombing that killed 16 people including a judge and several lawyers, officials said yesterday. “We have picked up around 50 suspects,” the senior police superintendent of the southwestern city of Quetta, Qazi Abdul Waheed, said. | The raids were conducted after the bomber blew himself up in a packed room during court proceedings on Saturday, killing 15 people including Quetta’s senior civil judge. About 35 people were taken to hospital. |
The court compound is located near police and provincial government offices in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, which borders Iran and insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan. “The incident appears a targeted attack on government installations or functionaries of the criminal justice system as part of a reaction against the government’s firm resolve to combat terrorism and sabotage in the country,” a police statement said.
“It’s linked to the overall scenario in the country,” said Quetta police chief Rahu Khan Brohi, referring to the series of attacks that has put the country on edge. He ruled out the involvement of Baloch nationalist rebels who have for decades been fighting a low-key insurgency for a greater share of the gas-rich province’s resources. “Investigations are under way and we hope to reach a conclusion very soon,” Brohi said.
| The bomberÂ’s severed head had been recovered and sent to Islamabad for tests, security officials said. A photograph of the his disfigured face was published in provincial newspapers. |
Balochistan’s chief minister, Jam Mohammad Yusuf, said the bomber may be an Afghan. “It is still a rough guess that the suicide bomber was an Afghan,” he told reporters. More than 1.2 million Afghans are sheltered in Balochistan.
Saturday’s incident was the latest in a wave of recent suicide attacks in Pakistan blamed on pro-Taleban militants angry at President Pervez Musharraf’s support for the US-led “war on terror”. “The incident will be investigated from all angles to reach the actual culprits,” police officer Waheed said.
Sparsely-populated Balochistan province has been troubled by recurring violence blamed on ethnic Baloch rebels demanding greater political rights and a share in the profits from the region’s natural resources. The chief minister, however, ruled out involvement of Baloch nationalists. “Balochs do not indulge in suicide attacks,” he said.
| The Quetta blast was the sixth attack in the past month blamed on Taleban-linked militants. |
A suicide bomber killed 15 people, mainly police officers, in Peshawar on January 27, a day after a bomber blew himself up at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, killing a guard.
Another bomber killed a policeman in the tribal town of Dera Ismail Khan on January 29, while a suicide car bomber killed two soldiers in the remote town of Tank this month.
Early this month an extremist blew himself up with a hand grenade after a gun battle with police at Islamabad airport, injuring three security guards.
Most of the attacks have been blamed on Taleban militants fighting security forces in the Waziristan tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Road blocks have been set up in Islamabad and police are checking all vehicles coming in to the city. Embassies have told their staff to limit their travel in the capital. “It is a serious problem ... this is not an isolated case,” said a senior Interior Ministry official, referring to the Quetta blast. “Ultimately, it’s linked to the militants who have carried out the recent attacks,” said the official who declined to be identified.