Quetta suicide attack on police academy leaves 59 dead

The victims were cadets and guards; at least 120 wounded. 700 students in the structure at the time of the attack. Suicide bombers from Taliban cell of an extremist group. The Balochistan region is part of an ambitious Chinese economic plan.

Quetta (AsiaNews) - Three Islamic militants broke into the police school of Balochistan overnight, a few kilometers from Quetta sowing death and terror. Two of them blew themselves up, while the third was neutralized before he could activate the mechanism on his explosive belt. The toll is very heavy and is set to rise: at the moment there are 59 deaths among cadets and guards and at least 120 injured, mostly students.

The formation school is located in the Sariab, and when the terrorist struck there were about 700 pupils aged 15 to 25 years. The terrorists stormed the building, startling guards and students in their sleep. According to preliminary reports, they entered the main entrance after killing the guard at the security post.

Armed with Kalashnikovs, they entered the dormitory and fired on those present. The violence stopped only several hours later, thanks to the intervention of border guards (FC). After the battle, two terrorists were able to detonate their explosive belts.

General Staff of the guards, Sher Afgan, reported that the bombers are part of the Al-Alimi cell, belonging to the militant group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ). The cell was affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but has not claimed responsibility for the action.

Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, is experiencing a resurgence of terrorist violence. In particular the same training school had already been hit on two separate occasions, in 2006 and 2008. Last August, the city was the scene of further violence at the hands of the militants, who have completed a double murder in the municipal hospital and at the local court: on that occasion the toll was 88 dead, most of them lawyers.

The region is strategic for trade with China. It falls in the ambitious plan of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, valued at $ 46 billion, an infrastructure project that wants to connect the Chinese province of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.

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