Islamabad, Sep 7: Twin suicide attacks targeting deputy chief of paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) killed at least 26 people and injured 45 others in Quetta just two days after the army confirmed arrests of three senior Al-Qaeda leaders from the city.
This was one of the deadliest attacks in Quetta, the capital of mineral-rich Balochistan province that borders Iran and Afghanistan. At least 11 people had been killed in a bomb explosion in the city on the day of Muslim festival of Id on August 31.
Wife and two children of FC deputy chief Brigadier Farrukh Shehzad and up to four officials of the FC, which had carried out operation to arrest the Al-Qaeda operatives, were among those killed in the attack, condemned by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is away to Kazakhstan on a two-day official visit.
"Brigadier Shehzad survived the attack but sustained injuries. However, he is said to be out of danger," a senior police official in Quetta said, as security officials announced they found head and some other body parts of one of the bombers, who blew himself up inside residence of the brigadier.
One of the bombers blew up his explosive-packed car outside residence of Brigadier Shezad while the other one, who was following the first attacker quickly went inside the house and detonated himself.
The FC, which works under the army is performing security duties in the insurgency-hit northwest and the tribal badlands infested by Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants. The force is also responsible for maintenance of law and order in Baluchistan, which was hit by insurgency in 2004 after Baloch nationalists rose to demand their due share in resources of the oil and gas rich province. The situation aggrevated in the province after one of the senior politician and Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in a military operation in Dera Bugti town in August 2006.
A senior security official said on condition of anonymity that the twin attacks could be a reaction of the recent arrests of Al-Qaeda leaders from Quetta.
The army had Monday announced that a senior Al Qaeda leader, Younis Al Mauritani mainly responsible for planning and conduct of international operations, was nabbed alongwith two other senior Al Qaeda operatives, Abdul Ghaffar Al Shami (Bachar Chama ) and Messara Al Shami (Mujahid Amino) from suburbs of Quetta "in an intelligence driven operation by Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in coordination with Frontier Corps Balochistan.
Al Mauritani was tasked personally by Osama Bin Ladan, who himself was killed by US Navy SEALs during an operation on May 2 in Pakistani city of Abbottabad, to focus on hitting targets of economical importance in United States of America, Europe and Australia. He was planning to target United States economic interests including gas/oil pipelines, power generating dams and strike ships/oil tankers through explosive laden speed boats in international waters, the military said.
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