At least three people have been killed and more than 20 injured Wednesday in a suicide bombing carried out by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) armed group, known as the Pakistani Taliban, in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, officials have confirmed.
The sub-inspector of the Quetta Police, Gulam Azfar Mahesar, detailed that the attack was perpetrated «near a police truck» and said that the dead are a policeman and two civilians. He added that among the 23 wounded there are 20 police officers and three civilians.
«Given the crime scene and taking into account that the truck overturned (because of the power of the explosion), it is estimated that 25 kilograms of explosives were used (to make the bomb),» he said, as reported by the Pakistani newspaper ‘Dawn’.
Shortly after, the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack, just two days after announcing that it had ended the ceasefire agreed with the authorities and asked its members to «carry out attacks wherever and whenever they can». He said he had shown «maximum restraint» and denounced that «the army and the spy agencies (of Pakistan) did not hold back».
The cease-fire had been in force for months in the midst of a process of talks between the Pakistani authorities and the armed group, a process mediated by the Afghan Taliban, which in August 2021 seized power in the neighboring country after the capture of the capital, Kabul.
The armed group, which differs from the Afghan Taliban in organizational matters but follows the same rigorist interpretation of Sunni Islam, brings together more than a dozen Islamist militant groups operating in Pakistan, where they have killed some 70,000 people in two decades of violence.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has strongly condemned the attack and ordered an investigation. The chief minister of Balochistan province, Abdulqudus Bizenjo, joined in the condemnations, saying that this «cowardly attack» would not affect the authorities’ determination to achieve peace.
