Two days after the terror group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off its ceasefire with the Pakistan government that was agreed to in June, a suicide bomber rammed a police vehicle escorting a polio vaccination team in Quetta, capital of the southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least three people and injuring dozens more.
According to local reports, the suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the police truck coming from Baleli to Quetta. Reuters reported that at least 30 people, including 15 police officers, were among the wounded. “Out of them, a policeman, a woman and a child died,” police official Abdul Haq told Reuters.
The end of the ceasefire coincided with a visit by a delegation led by Foreign Affairs Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to Kabul, and the appointment of new Pakistani army chief General Asim Munir on November 29.
In a media statement, the TTP said that its fighters will resume attacks in retaliation to the continuous military campaign against them. The terror outfit said that this latest attack was to avenge the killing of one of its prominent figures, Omar Khalid Khurasani, who was killed in Afghanistan in August 2022.
Quetta police’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ghulam Azfar Mahesar told reporters that two vehicles were damaged in the targeted attack that was aimed at security personnel protecting polio vaccination workers.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (#TTP), the group that has 48hours back ended the ceasefire unilaterally with #Pakistani government, has claimed responsibility of the #Quetta suicide bombing, while the death toll rose to six, including a police officer. pic.twitter.com/HJdrSqqd4Y
— Bahot Baloch | باہوٹ 🍂 (@Bahot_Baluch) November 30, 2022
The attack has triggered condemnations from several officials, including Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo who pledged retaliation. “All those involved in this incident and their facilitators will be brought under the law,” Bizenjo said.
The TTP has been at loggerheads with the Pakistan military for several years, especially after the violent attack of Lal Masjid in 2007. Earlier this month, the TTP ambushed a police vehicle in Marwat city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The targeted attack killed at least six policemen.
The polio vaccination campaign has often been targeted by extremist groups. Notions such as the vaccine being a tool for western spyinga e encouraged by the TTP which has carried out several attacks against those involved in vaccination drives. Over 100 people have been killed in this manner since 2012.
This year, there have been at least five attacks on polio teams. In October, unidentified gunmen killed a policeman providing security to a polio vaccination health worker in Balochistan’s Pishin city.
