ISLAMABAD: Traders in multiple districts of southwestern Pakistan closed their shops and businesses on Sunday to mourn victims of Friday’s suicide blast that killed over 50 in Mastung city. 

At least 60 people were killed and 53 were injured on Friday when a suicide blast targeted a gathering in Mastung held to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) birthday.

Two days after the blast, markets and shops in Balochistan’s Quetta, Kalat, Mastung, and Khuzdar districts wore a deserted look after traders announced a shutter-down strike to mourn victims of the blast. 

“We have been observing shutter-down strikes in Quetta, Mastung, Kalat, and Khuzdar to mourn the people killed in the Mastung blast,” Abdul Rahim Kakar, president of the Anjuman e Tajiran Balochistan, the most prominent association of traders in the province, told Arab News.

“The blast has shattered the entire province, directly impacting business activities in Balochistan,” Kakar continued. “We demand the government arrest the terrorists involved in the suicide attack on innocent people.”

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, while the Pakistani Taliban distanced themselves from the incident. 

Following the blast, Balochistan’s provincial government announced three days of mourning, saying that the national flag would fly at half-mast in all government offices.

Muhammad Yousaf Muhammad Shahi, general secretary of the Mastung Bazaar Association, told Arab News that bazaars and markets in Mastung are closed today, Sunday. He said the local population is gripped with fear after the blast. 

“In every street and village of Mastung, mourning prayers are continuing for the victims,” Shahi told Arab News over the phone. “People of Mastung have been witnessing attacks in recent years, which should be stopped now.” 

Situated near the provincial capital of Quetta, Mastung is mostly mentioned in the news due to incidents of sectarian violence, insurgency, and militant attacks. The security situation in the area has been volatile for years and it is widely considered as one of the more sensitive districts in Balochistan from a security perspective.

Proscribed entity Daesh, known for attacks in Pakistan and beyond on religious gatherings and minorities, has strong footprints in Balochistan, particularly Mastung. 

Pakistan’s interior minister on Saturday accused India’s intelligence agency of having a hand in the blast while Pakistan’s army chief General Syed Asim Munir vowed that the security operation against militants would continue “unabated.” 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s health authorities have finalized preparations to launch an anti-polio campaign in the country’s northwest that aims to vaccinate 7,478 million children in the area, a report in the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said on Sunday. 

According to APP, the five-day campaign will commence across KP from Monday, Oct. 2, and during its first phase, children below five years of age will be administered polio drops in Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan, Malakand, and Hazara divisions. 

 Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease caused by the poliovirus, which mainly affects children under the age of five. The virus invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death in some cases. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic.

“In the first phase of the campaign, around 63,628,95 children will be vaccinated against polio in all districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan, Malakand, and Hazara divisions,” an official of the National Emergency Operation Center was quoted as saying by the APP. 

During the second phase of the campaign, from Oct. 9-13, around 11,1681 children in Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan divisions will be vaccinated against the disease, the official added. 

“During this anti-polio campaign, vitamin A will also be given to children to increase their immunity,” the official said, adding that children up to the age of five living in Afghan refugee camps throughout the province would also be vaccinated. 

He said a total of 34,551 teams of trained polio workers would take part in the campaign, adding that around 54,567 police personnel have been deployed to ensure their security. 

Attempts to eradicate polio in Pakistan have been hit by attacks targeting inoculation teams that have claimed hundreds of lives in over a decade.

Opposition to all forms of inoculation grew after the US Central Intelligence Agency organized a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaeda’s former leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.