A. Majeed—AFP
Ahrar-ul-Hind claims responsibility for both strikes, adding it has no links to the Pakistani Taliban.
Two separate bombings targeting security forces in Pakistan killed 19 people on Friday, officials said, the latest violence to hit peace talks between the government and Taliban militants.
A suicide attack in the suburbs of Peshawar, close to the lawless tribal areas that are a haven for Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants, was followed a few hours later by a bombing in Quetta.
Dialogue aimed at ending the Islamists’ seven-year insurgency, which has claimed thousands of lives, resumed last week with government negotiators saying the process was ready to move to a new phase. But a ceasefire declared by the Pakistani Taliban on March 1 has been shaken by several bloody episodes, including a major attack on a court complex in Islamabad that left 11 people dead.
The main Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction denied that attack, which was claimed by a splinter group, but it nevertheless prompted many observers to question the militants’ commitment to dialogue.
Ahrar-ul-Hind, a little known insurgent group, claimed responsibility for Friday’s attacks. “We carried out the attacks in Peshawar and Quetta and we have no links with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),” said Ahmed Mansoor, a spokesman for the group. “We will continue such attacks till the implementation of Islamic shariah in Pakistan.”
Friday’s attack in Sarband village on the edge of Peshawar, close to the Khyber tribal district, came as Taliban negotiators met the TTP leadership to discuss the next steps in the talks process. Taliban sources said the TTP’s ruling council had asked for the military to pull out of South Waziristan to allow talks to be held there.
The target of the Peshawar blast was a police armored personnel carrier, officers said. “It was a suicide attack and the bomber approached the police vehicle on foot,” said Najeeb-ur-Rahman, a senior police officer, adding that nine people were killed. Mohammad Faisal, another police officer, confirmed the attack and death toll.
In Quetta, a bicycle bomb containing eight to 10 kilograms of explosives, apparently targeting a passing vehicle carrying security forces, killed 10 people and wounded 31, city police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema said.
Friday’s attack was the deadliest attack to hit Balochistan province since Jan. 22, when a bomb targeting a bus carrying Shia pilgrims returning from Iran killed 24 people.
Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in militant attacks in Pakistan since the emergence of the TTP after a military raid on a radical mosque in 2007, according to an AFP tally. Continued militant violence, the Islamabad court attack and a roadside bomb targeting security forces last week have threatened to derail the talks process.
More than 120 have died in attacks since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced dialogue with the militants in late January. Talks were a key campaign pledge for Sharif before he was elected to office for a third time last year. But many analysts are skeptical about their chances for success, given the Taliban’s demands for nationwide shariah law and a withdrawal of troops from the lawless tribal zones.