Fifteen people were killed and more than 30 others were wounded in a suicide bombing near a political rally in Pakistan, authorities said. Hundreds of members of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) had gathered for a rally at a stadium in Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province, when a bomb exploded in the parking area on Tuesday night. Provincial authorities said on Wednesday that the death toll had risen to 15. The Islamic State militant group said it carried out the attack. Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is the country's largest and poorest region. Its residents also face regular and often deadly attacks from the Islamic State and separatist groups. The suicide bomber could not reach the rally venue due to tight security, Balochistan health minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar said, according to Pakistani network Geo News. The damage would have been much greater if the blast had happened at the venue, government official Hamza Shafqaat told reporters. He also said that the government had deployed 120 police personnel to the rally for security, Geo News reported. The rally on Tuesday night was held in commemoration of Ataullah Mengal, the former chief minister of Balochistan who died in 2021. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack targeting the BNP rally, which he said was "damning evidence of the nefarious conspiracy by terrorists to spread chaos in Balochistan", local media reported. A survivor of the blast, Zaman Baloch, said he was standing at some distance from the rally venue when he heard a loud explosion. He suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg. "After the explosion, I saw a lot of people lying on the ground and there was screaming everywhere," Baloch said. Another survivor, Noor Ahmad, also recalled hearing a loud blast. Injured BNP leader Ahmed Nawaz told BBC Urdu that the explosion took place approximately 200 feet from the rally venue. Various militant groups operate in Balochistan, posing a constant threat to the security of its residents. In February 2024, Islamic State claimed it had carried out the bombing of election offices in Balochistan, one day before parliamentary elections were set to be held. The attacks killed more than 20 people and wounded dozens. Last November, more than 20 people were killed and dozens more injured in a suicide bombing at a railway station in Quetta. The Baloch Liberation Army, a militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack. And in March this year, armed militants from the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army hijacked a train carrying more than 400 passengers and threatened to kill hostages if authorities did not release Baloch political prisoners. – BBC
