A suicide bombing in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta targeted on Wednesday a police patrol, killing three people and wounding 28, police confirmed.
The explosion, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban militant group, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in a text message to Reuters, came after the group ended a ceasefire with the Pakistani government this week.
Abdul Haq, a police official, told Reuters that “a bomb blast that targeted a police patrol wounded more than 30 people, including 15 police.”
“Out of them, a policeman, a woman and a child died,” he added, noting that the patrol had been guarding a polio vaccination team at the time of the suicide blast.
Quetta is the capital of Pakistan’s province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
On Monday, the Taliban in Pakistan said they called off the fragile ceasefire with the government in place since June, directing its fighters to carry out attacks across the country.
Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is a separate entity from the Taliban in Afghanistan that shares a similar ideology with the group. It has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks that have been ripping through Pakistan since the group’s emersion in 2007.
The TTP had agreed with the Pakistani government on a ceasefire in June. However, both parties have made several claims that the truce was ignored, with numerous clashes and violations taking place.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
