At least 15 people, mostly security officials, were killed and over 20 others injured on Wednesday when a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polio vaccination centre in restive Balochistan’s capital Quetta, the worst attack on the anti-polio campaign in the country.
The blast ripped through a police van outside the vaccination centre as security officials gathered there to escort polio workers for the third day of a vaccination campaign in Balochistan. The suicide bomber detonated his explosives among the police officers, said Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti. “We’re in a war zone,” he said.
The deceased include 12 policemen, one paramilitary officer and two civilians, a police official said. Over 20 others were also injured in the bast. The bombing happened shortly before vaccination teams were due to be dispatched to local neighborhoods as part of the immunisation campaign, said Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police Quetta Syed Imtiaz Shah.
Shah said about eight kilogramme of explosives were used in the blast.