Bombs killed at least 40 people in Pakistan on Friday, with a suicide car bomber killing 13 in the southwestern city of Quetta, and two blasts later claiming at least 27 lives in the northwestern town of Parachinar, officials said. “As many as 13 bodies, seven of them of police officials, have been brought to Sandeman Hospital,” hospital spokesman Dr Waseem Baig told The Nation. In August last year, at least 74 people were killed in a suicide attack on the city's Civil Hospital, while another 60 were killed in an attack on a police academy two months later. Deputy Inspector General of Quetta Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema said the policemen deputed outside the Inspector General Police Office tried to stop a suspected vehicle, but the driver drove it on, only to be stopped at next checking point - where he blew the bomb, finding himself unable to break the cordon. “It’s possible the IG office was the target, or the assailants were trying to enter the cantonment which is close by,” he said, referring to an army housing area. Quetta is about 100 km (60 miles) east of the border with Afghanistan and is the capital of Baluchistan, which has been plagued by militant violence. Islamic State Khorasan Province, the Middle Eastern group's affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been known to work with the myriad of Pakistani militant groups in previous attacks, including with JuA.
A suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint in Quetta kills at least 13 people.