In a devastating Pakistan blast near a girls’ school in the Mastung district of Balochistan at least seven people have been killed and 23 injured while five children are among the injured. Senior Superintendent of Police Rahmat Ullah said that the explosion took place on Friday to target police personnel providing security to a polio vaccination team. The blast, caused by a motorcycle with an improvised explosive attached to it, occurred when officials were heading to fetch the vaccination team, casting a shadow on Pakistan’s national drive for polio vaccination.
Among those identified are a policeman and a shop owner; children and passersby are among those wounded in the Pakistan blast. Local news agencies reported Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s reaction, citing utter contempt by claiming it was “a barbarous act” targeting children. No organization or group has claimed responsibility for the attack, while tensions within the region had already surged in light of Islamabad consistently implicating the Taliban forces operating in Afghanistan for permitting such cross-border attacks into the country to destabilize it.
Pakistan blast near a girls’ school targetted health, education, and security at once
This attack happened during Pakistan’s third national polio drive of the year, which started on Monday with a campaign to vaccinate 45 million children under five years old in 71 districts. The campaign is an immediate response to a sharp spike in polio cases that have reached 41, mainly in Balochistan and Sindh. Pakistan is one of only two countries where polio still exists on a big scale.
Violence against polio workers has always worked against Pakistan’s efforts at a time when it might seem that the country wants to corner the virus. The polio vaccination campaigns have, in the past been victimized by armed groups with beliefs that it’s part of a Western scheme to sterilize the population. Pakistan blast highlights the long-drawn process of saving those lives with the drives being marred by threats.
Adding to the intricacies in Balochistan, the separatist groups, mainly the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), continue to carry out attacks on security personnel and civilians from other provinces of Pakistan, further raising regional instability. The blast in Pakistan has also fuelled the growing fear of militancy and its implications on the health and security initiatives in the region.
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