Ten killed in Quetta during Eidul Fitr prayers

Published August 9, 2013
The shooting came a day after a suicide bomber targeted a police funeral and killed 38 people, mostly police officers, in the same city. -Photo by Reuters
The shooting came a day after a suicide bomber targeted a police funeral and killed 38 people, mostly police officers, in the same city. -Photo by Reuters

QUETTA: At least 10 people were killed and many others injured on Friday in an attack that targetted a mosque the Eidul Fitr prayers near Quetta’s eastern bypass, DawnNews reported.

The shooting came a day after a suicide bomber targeted a police funeral and killed 38 people, mostly police officers, in the same city.

“Four gunmen opened fire when people were coming out of the mosque after saying Eid prayers,” senior local police official Bashir Ahmad Brohi told AFP.

Brohi said a former Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) provincial minister, Ali Madad Jattak, was also in the mosque and could have been the target.

“But we are not sure at the moment and are investigating, “he said, adding that Jattak escaped unhurt although bullets hit his car.

Another local police official, Sultan Ahmad, confirmed the incident and casualties outside the mosque, which is also a preaching and research centre.

Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the shooting. Most recent attacks in Quetta, the capital of oil- and gas-rich Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, have been linked to a Baloch separatist insurgency or sectarian violence.

On Tuesday Baloch separatists shot dead 14 people including three security officials, 70 kilometres southeast of Quetta.

Opinion

A state of chaos

A state of chaos

The establishment’s increasingly intrusive role has further diminished the credibility of the political dispensation.

Editorial

Bulldozed bill
Updated 22 May, 2024

Bulldozed bill

Where once the party was championing the people and their voices, it is now devising new means to silence them.
Out of the abyss
22 May, 2024

Out of the abyss

ENFORCED disappearances remain a persistent blight on fundamental human rights in the country. Recent exchanges...
Holding Israel accountable
22 May, 2024

Holding Israel accountable

ALTHOUGH the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor wants arrest warrants to be issued for Israel’s prime...
Iranian tragedy
Updated 21 May, 2024

Iranian tragedy

Due to Iran’s regional and geopolitical influence, the world will be watching the power transition carefully.
Circular debt woes
21 May, 2024

Circular debt woes

THE alleged corruption and ineptitude of the country’s power bureaucracy is proving very costly. New official data...
Reproductive health
21 May, 2024

Reproductive health

IT is naïve to imagine that reproductive healthcare counts in Pakistan, where women from low-income groups and ...