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Just In! Death Toll In Parachinar, Quetta Attacks Rises To 80
The number of people killed in twin bombings in the northwestern Pakistani city of Parachinar has risen to at least 67, bringing the overall death toll from three separate attacks across the country on Friday to 85, officials said.
In yet another incident on Friday, armed men in the port city of Karachi, in Sindh province, attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant and killed four of them before fleeing, Asif Ahmed, a senior police officer, told the Associated Press news agency.
Zoha Waseem, a researcher at King’s College in London, criticised what she called Pakistan’s “ad hoc” and “reactionary response to terrorism”, saying it only served to increase the appeal of armed groups.
They breed and exacerbate existing grievances in Pakistan”, she said, adding that such measures meant armed groups “will always find a pool of recruits, because they [public] are targeted by the state”.
“This happened on the last Friday of Ramadan, just a few days to go before the Eid holiday, so most of the people who were the victims in Parachinar were ordinary shoppers going about their shopping routines and possibly buying gifts for Eid,” Hyder said.
