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At Least 30 Killed in Suicide Bombing at Funeral in Pakistan Militants Kill Dozens of Mourners in Pakistan and Afghanistan
(about 7 hours later)
ISLAMABAD — At least 30 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives during a funeral service for a police official in southwestern Pakistan on Thursday, officials said. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The living were honoring the dead on both sides of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Thursday when militant bombers struck, killing at least 44 people in two attacks that coincided with one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar.
The attack in Quetta, the restive provincial capital of Baluchistan Province, was a reminder of the ease with which militants have managed to target the police and other security forces in recent weeks. All of the fatalities were police officials, and at least 40 people were wounded in the attack, according to Mushtaq Sukhera, the Inspector General of Baluchistan police. The heaviest toll was inflicted in the Pakistani city of Quetta, in western Baluchistan Province, where at least 30 people died in a suicide attack at the funeral of a policeman who had been killed just hours earlier.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. At the eastern end of the border, in the Afghan province of Nangarhar, a bomb exploded at a graveyard where people had gathered to pay their respects to a slain relative. Fourteen women and children from the same family were killed.
The violence in Quetta started early Thursday when unidentified gunmen killed Muhib Ullah, a junior police official, and wounded his four children as he was on his way to a market. The assailants escaped. Reporters in Quetta described scenes of chaos and devastation after the attack on the police funeral. At least 21 officers were killed, including a deputy chief in charge of field operations, Fayyaz Ahmed Sumbal.
Hours later, as the senior leadership of the Quetta police gathered for the funeral at Police Lines, considered to be a relatively secure official neighborhood that houses the lodging and offices of the police force, the suicide bomber evaded security measures and detonated his bomb. Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Quetta attack and said that the group would continue to target police officials, according to local news media outlets.
The explosion ripped through the funeral service as police officers and relatives scrambled for cover. One of the fatalities included a deputy inspector in charge of field operations, Fayyaz Ahmed Sumbal, who died in the hospital from his wounds. The attack underscored the fragile security situation in the once peaceful provincial capital. In recent years, the city has found itself on the fault-line of several conflicts that plague Baluchistan Province and, more broadly, all of Pakistan.
A low level insurgency has simmered in Baluchistan as nationalists have taken up arms against the federal government. The provincial capital has also been hit by sectarian violence as extremist Sunni militants have targeted Hazaras, a minority community belonging to the Shiite sect. Sectarian militants have carried out large attacks on minority Shiites in Quetta, while Baluch nationalists have singled out the security forces. Residents have reported a rise in kidnappings by both militant and criminal groups.
Moreover, the Afghan Taliban take shelter in the villages the north of the city, using them as a base to mount attacks on Afghan and Western troops inside Afghanistan.
Thursday’s bloodshed started with the assassination of a junior police official, Muhib Ullah. He was shot dead by unidentified gunmen as he made his way to market, and four of his children were wounded.
As is often the case in Quetta, the assailants escaped unharmed.
Hours later, as the city’s police leadership gathered for Mr. Ullah’s funeral in the Police Lines, a relatively secure district that houses police and provincial officials, a suicide bomber slipped through the security cordon and detonated his explosives.
The continuing spate of violence has rattled the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who ordered the country’s interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, to visit Quetta soon.
Mr. Sharif also asked the interior minister to present the final draft of a much-awaited national counterterrorism strategy on Aug. 30.
Critics say the lack of such a strategy has resulted in widespread confusion and lack of consensus about how to deal with the terrorists.
Meanwhile, opposition politicians urged the government to immediately convene a national conference of all political parties to come to a policy consensus. “The delay is causing more acts of terrorism,” said Syed Khurshid Shah, an opposition lawmaker belonging to Pakistan Peoples Party.
The attack in Afghanistan occurred in Ghanikhel District, near the border with Pakistan. The victims were visiting the grave of a relative on the first day of Id al-Fitr, the Islamic holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Provincial authorities said a bomb apparently planted on a grave exploded once the family gathered around it.
“My family is finished,” Haji Ghalib, a relative of the victims, told The Associated Press. “These people are inhuman.”
Suspicion fell on the Taliban insurgency, which the United Nations says is responsible for the majority of civilian deaths in Afghanistan.
The 14 victims, who were evenly split between women and children, had been visiting the grave of an elder who was assassinated by the Taliban this year.
The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, denounced the bombing as “a cowardly act by the enemies of the people of Afghanistan who are not part of any religion.”

Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Declan Walsh from London.  Matthew Rosenberg contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Khalid Alokozay from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.