A BOMB exploded in a crowded market on the outskirts of Islamabad yesterday, killing 20 people and wounding about 70 in the deadliest attack in the Pakistani capital in years.
The attack was claimed by a man who said he represented a Baluch separatist group, though Reuters had no way to verify the call, which came from an anonymous telephone number. If true, it would be the first attack in the capital carried out by Baluch separatist rebels and a significant escalation of Pakistan's western insurgency.
This conflict has often been overshadowed by the fight against the Taliban to the north.
Baluch rebels usually confine attacks to their own province, although they have bombed gas pipelines in Punjab in recent months.
"We conducted [the bombing] in retaliation for the military operation," said Mureed Baloch, referring to an operation on Monday in which the Pakistani military claimed to have killed 30 Baluch insurgents.
Baloch said he was from the United Baloch Army, which is banned by the Pakistani government for its militant activities.
Wednesday's early morning bomb targeted a throng of traders assembled for fruit auctions.
Severed body parts and bloodstained clothes were scattered throughout the market, located between Islamabad and its twin city of Rawalpindi.
Police said the bomb was hidden in a box of guava fruit.
"Body parts went everywhere and even hit other people on the head," said Shaheen, a market worker who only gave one name.
Bloody sandals lay amid boxes of straw and fruit squashed in the mud.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article