Eid Violence: Gunmen Kill 9 at Pakistan Mosque
Unidentified gunmen fired on a politician in Pakistan, who was driving by in his vehicle. However, the gunshots ended up killing 9 people and leaving 27 injured at a mosque near the shooting zone. The people gathered at the mosque for offering their prayer on the holy occasion of Eid-Al-Fitr. It happened at Quetta, situated in the western part of the country.
There have been violent attacks in the recent past in the city. About 30 people were killed by a suicide bombing attack in Quetta Thursday. The incident took place when the funeral ceremony of a recently killed policeman was going on. 21 officers got killed due to the attack.
Various militant groups seem to be pretty active in Quetta, the eastern Baluchistan province capital. Pakistani Taliban later claimed that they were responsible for the Thursday attack. The spokesperson of the group said that they had further plans to kill more policemen. They proved their determination of mass killing when they repeated a massacre the very next day.
This time, however, they were apparently not targeting the common people at a gathering. Reports say that they wanted to eliminate Ali Mohammad Jattack, ex Provincial Minister, who was in his car moving past the mosque.
The people who got injured were Islamic devotees who were approaching the mosque for their Eid prayer which is considered as highly auspicious in Islam. The innocent people could never have imagined such consequences on an occasion which is supposed to spread happiness and peace all around.
Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, is yet to present any security strategy on behalf of the country even though there were enough promises of negotiating with militant organizations during the electoral campaign.
U.S. officials withdrew their staff from the Lahore consulate and warned their citizen against travelling to Pakistan due the active presence of various militant groups in the country. The diplomatic tension in Pakistan reached its neighbour India as 5 Indian soldiers had been slaughtered earlier near the disputed Kashmir border.