At least 352 people were killed and 699 were injured in 27 bomb blasts that ripped through various areas across Pakistan during the first two months of the current year.
According to official figures, in January, 16 blasts which took place in different parts of the country caused 199 casualties and left 380 wounded while in the month of February 11 explosions took place killing 153 and injuring another 319.
The worst two of these attacks which occurred in the country’s southwestern provincial capital of Quetta, targeted areas dominated by Hazaras causing a huge loss of life and property.
The first attack was carried out on January 10 when twin blasts, a suicide attack followed by a car-bomb blast, targeted a snooker club in Quetta killing at least 106 people, including nine policemen and 20 rescue workers.
The second worst incident took place on February 16 when a suicide bomber exploded his water-tanker-bomb carrying some 1,000 kg of explosives in a busy vegetable market of the city and killed 89 besides injuring more than 170 people.
In another terrorist attack on February 2, at least 28 people were killed and 40 were injured when a suicide bomber exploded his jacket in front of a mosque when people were leaving after offering Friday prayers in Hangu district.
These three attacks targeted Shias and spread panic among the masses triggering countrywide protests against the attacks.
Another attack killed 31 people when a remote-controlled bomb rocked a preaching centre of Sunni Muslims in Mingora town of Swat district on January 10.
According to the official statistics, the terrorists carried out 27 bomb attacks at 26 targets, killing 311 civilians as well as 22 personnel from security forces and 19 policemen. Of a total 699 injured, 654 were civilians.
Pakistan Army’s 21 servicemen and 19 policemen lost their lives while one Frontier Constabulary personnel was killed in the attacks.
Hours before the snooker club attack on January 10, a powerful bomb explosion targeting a security checkpost at Quetta’s busy Bacha Khan Chowk. Twelve people were killed while another 50 were injured in the attack.
Regarding the number of attacks, the Tribal Areas were the worst hit with nine bomb attacks, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.
The heavily-populated eastern province of Punjab remained safe as there was no incident of terrorism occurred in this time period.
Balochistan suffered the highest number of casualties, 212 killed and around 370 were injured in five blasts alone.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took the second spot with 72 casualties and 150 injured in seven bomb attacks.
In Sindh, 22 people were killed and 84 injured in six low-intensity bomb blasts.
Of the total 27 explosions, 20 blasts were remote-controlled while five were suicide attacks followed by one toy bomb and one landmine blast.
After both the snooker club and vegetable market incidents, thousands of protesters belonging to the Shia community refused to bury the bodies and held sit-ins against the massacres across the country, putting their 19 demands forward including the dissolution of the provincial government of Balochistan and a prompt armed action against those responsible.
