15 killed in explosion outside polio centre in Quetta, Pakistan

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned the suicide bombing close to a polio eradication center in Quetta, Pakistan, which reportedly killed at least 15 people and wounded 25 others.

“Health workers, police guards, and personnel from the paramilitary Frontier Corps force were preparing for a door-to-door polio vaccination drive as part of a three-day campaign when they were attacked”.

AFP reports almost 80 people have been killed in the attacks since December 2012.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also claimed responsibility in a statement released by their spokesman, Muhammad Khorasani.

An Afghan official says a suicide bomber has detonated explosives near the Pakistani consulate in the capital of a volatile eastern province, killing at least two civilians.

Eye-witness Shabir Ahmed, a 32-year-old police constable, told AFP he had been deployed to protect a polio vaccination team that was due to leave for various neighbourhoods of Quetta at 10 am. “We will not bow down before terrorists”, said Mr Bugti, adding that the blast was an effort to disrupt peace in Balochistan.

Two separate militant groups – the Pakistani Taliban and Jundallah, which is Taliban-linked and pledged allegiance to ISIS – have reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Reuters.

“A team comprising senior officials is investigating the incident”, a police officer said. “We claim the bomb blast on polio office”.

Pakistan remains on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of polio-endemic countries.

The bombing made the security forces the primary target, said police chief Shah, speaking at the scene, which was strewn with blood and debris, of the bombing as rescuers rushed the wounded to hospital.

In 2014, the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan soared to 306, the highest in 14 years.

Apart from attacks on vaccination teams, Baluchistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed and most sparsely populated province, has been racked for decades by a separatist insurgency that was revived in 2004.