"There is one treatment for Shiites — it is called jihad." Like helping them with their taxes and dropping off their kids at school? ...Shiites are “the greatest infidels on earth.”
People inspect the scene of a bomb blast in the southwestern city of Quetta, where the worst violence occurred.
“After every killing, there are no arrests,” said Muzaffar Ali Changezi, a retired Hazara engineer. “So if the government is not supporting these killers, it must be at least protecting them. That’s the only way to explain how they operate so openly.”...
Suicide bombers target snooker hall in Quetta, Pakistan AFP
BOMB attacks have killed 115 people in Pakistan's city of Quetta, as twin suicide bombers targeted a snooker hall frequented by Shi'ites in the deadliest single attack in the country for nearly two years.At least 115 people were killed and 121 wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the crowded club in an area of the southwestern city dominated by members of the Shi'ite Muslim community, a senior police officer said.
It was one of the worst single attacks ever on the minority community, which account for about 20 per cent of Pakistan's 180-million strong population.
It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since twin suicide bombers killed 98 people outside a police training centre in the northwestern town of Shabqadar on May 13, 2011.
The double suicide blasts came hours after a bomb ripped through a security forces' vehicle in a crowded part of the city, killing 11 people and wounding dozens more.
At the snooker club the first suicide bomber struck inside the building, then 10 minutes later an attacker in a car outside blew himself up as police, media workers and rescue teams rushed to the site, said officer Mir Zubair Mehmood.
Dozens of people were killed in bomb explosions in Quetta, Pakistan. Picture: Banaras Khan/AFP
"The death toll has risen to 81 so far," senior police official Mir Zubair Mehmood told a news conference, putting the number of wounded at 121.
"Both (attacks) were (carried out by) suicide bombers and the death toll could rise further," he added.
Mehmood said the dead also included nine police personnel and a local television camera man. Several rescue workers were also killed in the attacks, he said.
According to the US-based Human Rights Watch, 2012 was the deadliest year on record for Shi'ites in Pakistan.
The organisation late Thursday called the government's failure to protect the community, reprehensible and amounting "to complicity in the barbaric slaughter of Pakistani citizens".
Two successive bombs exploded at a snooker club in Quetta, Pakistan, hours after another blast had already left many casualties, police said. Picture: Banaras Khan/AFP
In the northwestern Swat valley on Thursday a gas cylinder blast at a religious gathering killed 22 people and wounded more than 80, officials said, prompting a probe into possible sabotage.
The explosion took place at a weekly meeting of the local Tableeghi Jamaat (preachers' party) at its centre on the outskirts of Mingora, the main town in the district, regional police chief Akhtar Hayat said.
It was the deadliest blast in Swat since the Pakistan army declared it back under government control in July 2009 following a two-year Taliban-led insurgency in the valley.
