TTP-RAW nexus wreaks havoc in Baluchistan!

At least 70 people were killed and over 100 others injured today when a Taliban suicide bomber struck mourners, mostly lawyers, gathered at a hospital in Pakistan’s restive Baluchistan province in one of the deadliest terror attacks in the country this year. The bomber struck over 200 mourners at the government-run Civil Hospital in Quetta where the body of prominent lawyer Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was shot dead earlier in the day, was being brought. Kasi was the president of Baluchistan Bar Association (BA) Advocate.

A loud explosion was heard at the emergency department where Kasi’s body was brought for autopsy. Gunfire followed the explosion. Police said it was a suicide attack where 8 kilograms of explosives were used.

“No crater found at the site of the attack and it appears the bomber had the explosives strapped to his chest,” a police officer said. Bomb Disposal Squad officials also confirmed the explosion was a suicide bombing.

A spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said that his faction “accepts responsibility” for the attack in the southwestern city of Quetta and vowed more attacks “until the imposition of an Islamic system in Pakistan”.

The head of the provincial health department said, “The death toll has risen to 70 and there are 112 injured.” Officials said the toll may go up. Television footage showed scenes of chaos, with panicked mourners fleeing through debris as smoke filled the corridors of the hospital’s emergency ward. Many of the victims were clad in the black suit worn by lawyers. A contingent of Frontier Corps and police arrived and cordoned off the hospital following the blast, restricting access to the area.

Today’s suicide attack appeared to target Kasi’s supporters,” Anwar ul Haq, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government, said. It is the second deadliest in Pakistan this year so far, after a bombing in a crowded park in Lahore over Easter killed 75.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain strongly condemned the attack. Sharif ordered the provincial government to arrest the culprits.

“No one will be allowed to disrupt the peace of the province,” Sharif said. He cancelled all prior commitments and visited Quetta. Two journalists were among the deceased, according to reports.

“This was a security lapse and I am having this personally investigated,” Baluchistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said. He described the attack as an “act of terrorism.” Bugti said the impact of the explosion was strong that scores of vehicles and motorbikes that were around the hospital were destroyed.

Panic tore through the hospital after the incident and emergency has been declared at hospitals in Quetta. The provincial government announced three-day mourning during which Pakistan’s National Flag will remain at half-mast on government buildings. Social networking site Facebook activated its “safety check” feature after the blast in the provincial capital.

Officials said mobile phone jammers had been activated around hospitals in the area. Quetta has also long been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban. In May, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by a US drone strike while travelling to Quetta from the Pakistan-Iran border.

Pakistan’s army chief Raheel Sharif said that all necessary steps would be taken to defeat militancy in the country as he chaired security meeting in Quetta. He said that attack was an attempt to undermine improved security in Baluchistan. He said it was attempt to target China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“All resources to be employed to control situation,” he said.

The director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lt Gen Asim Bajwa, shared the text of General Raheel Sharif’s meeting with the Iranian president. “There is one concern that RAW is involved in Pakistan, especially in Baluchistan, and sometimes it also uses the soil of our brother country Iran”. During the meeting with the Iranian president, Gen Raheel reportedly asked Rouhani to tell them [RAW] that “they should stop these activities and allow Pakistan to achieve stability”, Bajwa tweeted.

Earlier, the military’s media wing had claimed that General Raheel Sharif discussed the issue of RAW's involvement in Pakistan's internal affairs with the Iranian president.

The army chief while highlighting the challenges being faced by Pakistan, discussed the alleged involvement of RAW in Pakistani affairs, especially in Baluchistan, the ISPR statement had claimed.

Raw is using Afghanistan and Iran’s soil to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan. RAW has promoted terrorism and separatism in Baluchistan. India's point of view is more popular at the world stage simply due to the increasing strategic importance of India. India has a huge market and the West wants to woo it. When U.S. was in Afghanistan, U.S used to shrug off India. Now U.S. and West's interests have changed. India is a rising global power which is too strong to disregard. This is why we can see that U.S. is putting pressure on Pakistan to unroot terrorism. This why Hollande (France's Head of State) said that it was entirely "reasonable" for India to pressurize Pakistan. It's all a game and the more powerful and clever nation wins. Let there be no doubt whether Pakistan is the victim of Indian sponsored terrorism. Raw agents are openly bragging about the thousands of innocent Pakistani's they are massacring. Pakistan is not itself supporting terrorism in India, it is the Kashmiris who have NEVER accepted Indian occupation. And of course not only all Pakistanis but also international community morally supports Kashmir’s right to self-determination. India is destabilizing Pakistan simply out of hatred and animosity that Pakistan exists. Pakistan's only issue with India is the illegal occupation and oppression of the Kashmiri people. THE WORLD MUST STOP INDIAN TERRORISM or the tensions will get worse.

It is an irony of fate that the world seems to have turned blind eye and deaf ear to India’s violation of International Law and sovereignty of states through proxies and terrorism. The evidence of which comes from not other than PM of so called largest democracy of the world i.e. India as Modi in a speech in Bangladesh shamelessly and arrogantly claimed responsibility of dismembering Bangladesh from Pakistan by creating a separatist group called “Mukti Bahini”. Given such a tainted history of Indian involvement in internal affairs of neighboring countries "How can any sane individual rule out or refute Indian involvement in any part of Pakistan particularly Baluchistan"?