At least 20 people have been killed and several wounded in suicide bombings near a government compound in the Pakistani city of Quetta bordering Afghanistan.
“First a car bomb exploded outside the residence of DIG [deputy inspector general] Frontier Corps, then a suicide bomber entered inside the house and blew himself up,” Hamid Shakil, senior police official, said on Wednesday.
One of the suicide bombers blew himself up in a vehicle packed with explosives near the car of Farrukh Shehzad, the DIG of Baluchistan. Shehzad was wounded and his wife was killed, police said.
The other suicide bomber struck inside his house killing seven of his guards and brought down the walls of his house and nearby offices. Among those killed were two children.
A man drenched in blood sat dazed beside the road next to the dead body of his baby. Auto-rickshaws were ripped apart by the force of the blasts.
Revenge for al-Qaeda arrests?
Both the explosions took place within five minutes of each other in a secure area of the city near the commissioner’s office.
Police said they were investigating whether the strike was revenge for the recent arrests of three top al-Qaeda suspects in the city, an operation that was assisted by the CIA.
“This attack was may be in reaction to the recent arrests, but we are investigating,” Hamid Shakil, police officer, said.
The arrests of the al-Qaeda suspects were disclosed on Monday in an army statement that stressed the level of CIA involvement.
The Frontier Corps, Pakistan’s paramilitary force, took part in the operation, the army statement had said.
Quetta is a strategic town in Baluchistan province, which also borders Iran.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies