Pakistan on September 30 accused India’s intelligence agency of being involved in two suicide blasts on September 29 as the death toll rose to 65.
Pakistan twin blast
Pakistan on September 30 accused India’s intelligence agency of being involved in two suicide blasts on September 29 as the death toll rose to 65.
The explosion took place near a mosque in Balochistan’s Mustang after a bomber detonated his explosives. Hours later another explosion took place at a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu city that killed at least 5 people.
Pakistan’s interior minister Sarfaraz Bugti in Quetta, Balochistan accused India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) of being involved in the suicide attack.
Police on Saturday filed a report to launch an investigation, saying they had sent DNA from the suicide bomb attacker to be analysed.
A total of 60 people were killed and more than 60 others were injured in a grisly suicide blast in Balochistan near the Madina Masjid at a place called Mastung.
The blast reportedly struck as people tried to fill up their cars to flee. Thousands of ethnic Armenians are leaving the disputed territory after it was reclaimed in a lightning offensive by the Azerbaijani military last week.
The blast occurred as people were lining up for fuel
At least 68 people have been killed and 105 more are missing after a powerful blast at a fuel depot in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to Azerbaijani media.
The explosion happened as people fleeing the disputed region to Armenia lined up for fuel, separatist authorities said.
Earlier, 20 people were confirmed to have died. It is not immediately clear what caused the blast.
Hundreds of others were reportedly injured in the explosion which happened near the regional capital of Stepanakert on Monday.
Thousands of ethnic Armenians are leaving the territory, saying they fear ethnic cleansing after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed control of it last week.
Lightning operation
The Azerbaijani military took control of the region in a 24-hour lightning operation last week, ending three decades of separatist rule.
At least 19,000 of the 120,000 resident ethnic Armenians have fled to Armenia so far, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan was quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying. That amounts to roughly 16% of the population.
Armenia claims the mass exodus is due to a fear of reprisals – something strongly denied by Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has vowed to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians in the region and to restore supplies after a 10-month blockade.
Those lining up at the fuel facility were reportedly waiting for gas. It has been a scarcity alongside basic food and supplies since the blockade, according to Armenia.
The US has called on Azerbaijan to protect the rights of civilians.
“We are calling on Azerbaijan to maintain the ceasefire and take concrete steps to protect the rights of civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh,” US Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power told reporters in Armenia’s capital Yerevan.
“We have heard very troubling reports of violence against civilians. At the same time given the chaos here and the trauma, the gathering of testimonies… of the people who have come across is something that is just beginning,” Ms Power said.
The Azerbaijani offensive last week forced separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and start talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan.
At least nine people have been killed, including three children, in a blast at a fireworks warehouse in a market in southern Thailand on Saturday.
The explosion in Sungai Kolok, on the Malaysian border, seriously injured at least 115 people and is thought to have been caused by construction work.
Residents described hearing a huge explosion at around 15:00 (09:00 BST).
The force shook buildings, shattered windows and collapsed rooves, sending a massive plume of smoke into the air.
The explosion has also destroyed a large part of the town in Narathiwat province.
The market fire has been brought under control and a preliminary investigation indicates a “technical error” in steel welding during construction work on the building was responsible, local governor Sanon Pongaksorn said.
Seksan Taesen, an eyewitness who lives 100m (330 ft) from the market, said he was at home when he heard a “loud, thunderous noise and my whole house shook”.
“Then I saw my roof was wide open. I looked outside and I saw house collapsing and people lying on the ground everywhere. It was chaos,” he told AFP.
Accidents involving fireworks in South East Asia, which are commonly used in the region to commemorate big events, are not unusual.
One in a factory in Indonesia six years ago killed 49 people. Another five days ago killed one woman and injured 10 more in northern Thailand.
Despite public pressure to improve safety, Thailand still has a poor record of accidents on its roads, construction sites and in the work place.
Two explosions in a counter-terrorism ammunition depot in northwest Pakistan killed at least 13 people and wounded over 50 on Monday, police said.
Provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat said the explosions rocked the counter-terrorism office in northwestern Swat valley, which was previously long controlled by Islamist militants before they were flushed out in a military operation in 2009.
His spokesman said in a statement issued later that ammunition caught fire, “most probably due to an electric short-circuit. No evidence of an attack from outside has been established so far.”
Pakistani police and military have got a significant presence of their counter-terrorism staff in the valley, which has been prone to the insurgency.
The militants also shot at and wounded Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai in 2012 in the scenic valley, the birthplace of Mullah Fazlullah, the former chief of the Pakistani Taliban, who was killed in an air strike in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2018.
Police officers and rescue workers gather after explosions on the counter-terrorism office building in Swat, Pakistan April 24, 2023. Rescue 1122/Handout via REUTERS
Other aspects of the explosions are being investigated, the spokesman said.
Most of those killed in the blasts were police counter-terrorism officers, Hayat said, adding that a woman and her child who were passing by the building were also killed.
