At least 15 dead in blast at Pakistan polio centre

A Pakistani paramedic gives treatment to an injured survivor following a bomb blast near a polio vaccination centre, at a hospital in Quetta on January 13, 2016. At least 15 people were killed in a blast apparently targeting police outside a polio vaccination centre in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta according to officials. PHOTO | BANARAS KHAN |

What you need to know:

  • The victims, mainly policemen, had been gathering outside the centre to accompany polio workers on the third day of a vaccination campaign which has been frequently targeted by Taliban and other Islamist militant groups in Pakistan.
  • Quetta is the capital of the restive Balochistan province, which is also home to a separatist insurgency that has been raging since 2004.
  • “There are 15 dead, including 12 police, one paramilitary, and two civilians,” a local police official told AFP.

QUETTA, Pakistan, Wednesday

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polio vaccination centre in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people, officials said, in a Taliban-claimed attack.

The victims, mainly policemen, had been gathering outside the centre to accompany polio workers on the third day of a vaccination campaign which has been frequently targeted by Taliban and other Islamist militant groups in Pakistan.

Quetta is the capital of the restive Balochistan province, which is also home to a separatist insurgency that has been raging since 2004.

“There are 15 dead, including 12 police, one paramilitary, and two civilians,” a local police official told AFP.

Sarfraz Bugti, Balochistan home minister added: “So far 15 people have been injured in the blast, seven of whom are in critical condition.”

An AFP reporter at the site saw three burned out vehicles that had been blown up in the explosion, while human remains lay strewn across the area, along with items of clothing including the caps and shoes of policemen.

Some officials had begun to gather evidence from the scene while others were collecting body parts.

POLIO VACCINATION TEAM

Eye-witness Shabir Ahmed, a 32-year-old police constable, told AFP he had been deployed to protect a polio vaccination team that was due to leave for various neighbourhoods of Quetta at 10 am.

“Suddenly there was a loud bang and I fell to the ground, I could not see anything, there was dust everywhere,” he said.

“Then I heard people screaming and sirens of ambulances,” he continued, adding he had received shrapnel wounds to his stomach, hands, legs and feet.

Anwar ul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the provincial government, vowed the polio immunisation drive would continue.

“We won’t allow the nefarious designs of the terrorists to succeed, we will eliminate polio,” he said.

TALIBAN INSURGENCY

The attack was later claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging an insurgency against the government since 2007.

“We accept the responsibility of attack on security forces in Quetta,” a statement on their Facebook page said.

Pakistan is one of only two countries where polio, a crippling childhood disease, remains endemic.

Attempts to eradicate it have been badly hit by militant attacks on immunisation teams that have claimed nearly 80 lives since December 2012.

Islamist groups including the Taliban say the polio vaccination drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.

In 2014 the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan soared to 306, the highest in 14 years, falling to 52 in 2015.

The most recent attack came in November last year, when unknown gunmen shot and killed the head of an immunisation programme in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district of Swabi.