KARACHI: An attack at a fruit and vegetable market in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta killed at least 20 people and wounded 48 others, officials said, in an assault apparently aimed at Shia Muslims from the ethnic Hazara minority.
Deputy police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema said police were unsure if a time-bomb or a remote-controlled improvised explosive device had been used in the blast at the Hazar Ganji open market. Balochistan Home Minister Mir Zia Ullah Langau said the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber.
Hazaras have regularly come under attack in both Pakistan and Afghanistan from Taliban and Daesh militants and other sectarian outfits.
“Of those killed, eight are members of the Hazara community,” Cheema said, adding that a paramilitary Frontier Corps soldier had also perished in the blast.
Home minister Langua denied the attack had targeted a particular community.
At least 48 people were injured in the attack, according to Bolan Medical Complex and Quetta Trauma Center.
According to a 2018 report released by the National Commission for Human Rights, 509 ethnic Hazaras were killed and 627 wounded in a spate of attacks against the community between January 2012 and Dec 2017.
The deadliest attacks took place in 2013 when three separate bombings killed more than 200 members of the community in Balochistan province. After those attacks, security officials would escort Hazara buses out of the two protected enclaves where they mostly live and work, including to markets like the one where Friday’s attack occurred on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.
On Friday, too, 55 Hazaras were escorted to the market by security officials in 11 vehicles, Cheema said, but the bomb had been hidden in a bag of potatoes and went off inside the market.
Prime Minister Imran Khan strongly condemned the Quetta blast and directed authorities to provide the best possible medical care to the injured, state-run Radio Pakistan said. Khan has also called for an inquiry into the incident.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has made important commitments to protect all religious groups in the country. Those commitments must translate now into policies to effectively protect the Hazaras of Quetta, ending more than a decade of bloodshed that has scarred their community,” Amnesty International’s Deputy South Asia Director, Omar Waraich, said.
“This horrific loss of life is a painful reminder of the threats that Quetta’s Hazara community continues to face. Targeted for their religion by sectarian armed groups, they have suffered many such tragedies over several years. Each time, there are promises that more will be done to protect them, and each time those promises have failed to materialize.
Twenty killed, 48 wounded in attack on market in Pakistan’s Quetta
Twenty killed, 48 wounded in attack on market in Pakistan’s Quetta
- Eight of the deceased are Shia Muslims from the Hazara community frequently attacked by Taliban and sectarian militant groups
- Police official says bomb was hidden in potato bag, home minister says it was a suicide blast
Pakistan vaccinates over 26 million children amid declining polio cases
- Pakistani authorities say polio cases dropped to 31 in 2025 from 74 a year earlier
- Over 400,000 workers deployed as Pakistan, Afghanistan run simultaneous campaigns
KARACHI: Pakistan on Wednesday said its first nationwide polio vaccination drive of 2026 was continuing for a third day, with health workers having immunized more than 26.8 million children amid a decline in reported cases of the crippling disease.
The campaign, being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, comes after Pakistan reported 31 polio cases in 2025, a significant drop from 74 cases in 2024, which officials had described as alarming.
More than 400,000 polio workers are going door to door across the country to administer oral polio drops to children, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said.
“More than 26.8 million children have been vaccinated nationwide in the first two days of the campaign,” it said in an update, urging parents to cooperate with vaccination teams and ensure their children receive the drops.
According to the statement, more than 14.5 million children have been vaccinated in Punjab, 5.88 million in Sindh, 4.32 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and around 1.28 million in Balochistan.
Vaccination figures also included nearly 294,000 children in Islamabad, more than 165,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 446,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Health authorities warned that polio is an incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis, stressing that sustained immunization efforts were essential to prevent its spread.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic, and both have stepped up coordinated vaccination drives in recent years amid concerns about cross-border transmission.
