A car bomb exploded at the Jalozai displaced persons camp outside Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan on March 21, killing at least 15 and leaving some 50 injured. The dead included two women and two children. The camp, Pakistan’s largest, is home to tens of thousands fleeing violence and persecution in the Taliban-dominated Federally Administered Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan. The blast took place at the gate of a FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) distribution point where camp residents had lined up to for rations. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) disassociated itself from the attack. (Dawn, BBC News, March 21)
More terror in Peshawar
Militants attacked a power station at Sheikh Muhammadi village on the outskirts of Peshawar April 1, killing two people at the spot and kidnapping nine others. Of the nine adbucted, at least four are believed dead, all either security guards or police agents. Pakistan Tribune, April 2) Three days earlier, a suicide attack on a Frontier Corps post near Peshawar killed 12 people. (Pakistan Daily Times, April 4)
Pakistan: Taliban terror targets secular parties
At least 10 people were killed in a bomb attack on an election meeting in the southern Pakistani city of Karach April 26i. Police said a device had exploded near the office of the Awami National Party It is the third bombing by the Taliban in Karachi the past two days. The previous two, which targeted the election offices of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, left 11 people dead. (BBC News, April 26)
Terror in Karachi
A bomb explosion in the Pakistani city of Karachi killed at least 11 people, including several children, and injured at least 24 others. The bomb, hidden in a motorcycle, detonated beside a football pitch in the Lyari neighborhood during a local tournament. Many victims were between six and 15 years old. (BBC, Aug. 7)
Terror in Quetta
A suicide bombing at a funeral for a police officer in Quetta killed at least 28 people and wounded at least 50. (BBC News, Aug. 8)
More Eid terror in Quetta
Gunmen opened fire near a Sunni mosque in the Pakistani city of Quetta in a deadly attack, just one day after a suicide bomber killed at least 37 people in the same city. The Friday attack, which killed at least 10 and left 24 wounded, came as most Pakistanis celebrated Eid. A former Pakistan Peoples Party provincial minister, Ali Madad Jatak, was in the mosque and could have been the target. (Al Jazeera, Aug. 9)
Peshawar terror targets Christians
Twin suicide bombers killed at least 78 and wounded 120 outside a church in Peshawarâthe deadliest attack ever on Pakistan’s Christian minority. The blasts went off as hundreds of worshippers were leaving the historic white-stone All Saints Church in the Kohati Gate district Sunday morning. (Global Post, Sept. 22)
Pakistan: angry protests after Peshawar church attack
Protests and vigils have taken place across Pakistan as Christians demand better protection after suicide blasts killed at least 80 people at a church in Peshawar. Political and religious leaders condemned the attack, but angry crowds took to the streets of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi as well as Peshawar, denouncing the state’s failure to protect minorities. (BBC News)