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QUETTA, Pakistan: The death toll from a Taliban attack that targeted security forces responsible for the recent capture of al Qaeda operatives in southwest Pakistan has risen to 27, police said Thursday.
Two suicide bombers attacked the residence of the deputy chief of the Frontier Corps in Quetta at rush hour on Wednesday, exacting maximum casualties in an area of the city packed with security guards and government buildings.
“The death toll in yesterday's bombing has gone up as three of the injured died overnight, taking the total number of dead to 27,” senior police official Hamid Shakil told AFP.
One bomb detonated in a car outside the residence of deputy chief Farrukh Shahzad, and the second attacker blew himself up inside the house, killing the deputy chief's wife and injuring him and at least one of his children.
The Frontier Corps is Pakistan's paramilitary force.
On Monday the army announced the corps had arrested a senior al Qaeda leader believed to have been responsible for planning attacks on the United States, Europe and Australia.
Younis al-Mauritani was picked up in the suburbs of Quetta, the main town of Baluchistan province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, along with two other high-ranking operatives, after US and Pakistani spy agencies joined forces.
The army named the two other senior operatives as Abdul Ghaffar al-Shami and Messara al-Shami.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, saying it was to avenge the arrests, in a phone call to AFP from an undisclosed location.
