Two suicide bombers targeting a senior security official have killed 23 people and wounded over 60 others in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta.
Police said that, on September 7, one attacker detonated his explosives-packed car outside the house of the deputy chief of the Frontier Corps in the city, Farrukh Shahzad, while a second one blew himself up inside the house.
"I was on the way to Jinnah Road to park my car," eyewitness Daud Khan told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. "A Pajero SUV came there at high speed, and crossed my way and hit the wall there. Then it returned and there was a blast. I was not injured in the explosion."
Officials said Shahzad's wife, a colonel, and several other members of the Frontier Corps -- a paramilitary force battling militants on the Afghan border -- were among the dead.
Speaking from the scene of the explosion, Radio Mashaal correspondent Khudai Noor Nasar said he could see "a pick-up truck and a car burning in flames" as well as "human limbs scattered around the area."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan saying it was to avenge the recent arrest of a senior Al-Qaeda member in the Quetta suburbs.
The army announced on September 5 that Younis al-Mauritani had been detained in the Quetta suburbs along with two other operatives.
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan Province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban as well as autonomy-seeking Baluch nationalists are active in the area.
Police said that, on September 7, one attacker detonated his explosives-packed car outside the house of the deputy chief of the Frontier Corps in the city, Farrukh Shahzad, while a second one blew himself up inside the house.
"I was on the way to Jinnah Road to park my car," eyewitness Daud Khan told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. "A Pajero SUV came there at high speed, and crossed my way and hit the wall there. Then it returned and there was a blast. I was not injured in the explosion."
Officials said Shahzad's wife, a colonel, and several other members of the Frontier Corps -- a paramilitary force battling militants on the Afghan border -- were among the dead.
Speaking from the scene of the explosion, Radio Mashaal correspondent Khudai Noor Nasar said he could see "a pick-up truck and a car burning in flames" as well as "human limbs scattered around the area."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan saying it was to avenge the recent arrest of a senior Al-Qaeda member in the Quetta suburbs.
The army announced on September 5 that Younis al-Mauritani had been detained in the Quetta suburbs along with two other operatives.
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan Province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban as well as autonomy-seeking Baluch nationalists are active in the area.
