news

Opinion: World views of U.S.: Romney, Obama both right. And both wrong

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:51:05 +0100

In Europe there has been a dramatic turnaround in how European countries like Germany and allies like Japan view the United States.

In 2008, under President George W. Bush, 31% of Germans had a favorable view of the United States. In 2012, under President Obama, 52% do. In Japan, in 2008, 50% had a positive view of America. Now, 72% do.

But in many Muslim countries Obama's policies have damaged views of the United States. In Pakistan, favorable views slipped from 19% in 2008 to 12% in 2012. In Egypt, favorable views decreased from 22% to 19%.

The biggest concern worldwide about America, according to the survey, still is that it acts without concern for the interests of other countries. But despite disappointment with Obama's policies, there is considerable support for his re-election, in Europe and in some Latin American countries like Brazil.

In France, 92% of those questioned think Obama should get another term. In Germany, 89% agree and in Brazil, 72% think he should be re-elected. In Mexico, however, 35% think he deserves another term and 43% oppose another term.

"Most of the publics in allied nations think he should be re-elected, and by large numbers," Kohut said. "If he had those numbers in the United States he could do really well!"

But in some Middle Eastern countries, it's the reverse. In Egypt, 76% don't want him to have another term and in Jordan, it is 73%.

Another finding in the survey: Even America's friends in Europe think China, not the United States, is the world's top economy.

As one man on the streets of London said: "If China sneezes, I think the rest of the world gets a cold."

But the Chinese themselves aren't so sure. Only 29% of Chinese in the Pew Survey said China is the world's leading economic power. Almost half said it is the United States.

Taliban

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:48:45 +0100

The Taliban, a Sunni Islamist group, ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 until they were ousted by the American-led invasion after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Based in the Pashtun region in the country’s southeast, the group grew out of a student movement dedicated to purifying Afghanistan. Their rise was initially greeted with relief by many Afghans weary of the corruption and brutality of the warlords who had fought for control in the years after the end of Soviet occupation. During their time in power, the Taliban shelteredOsama bin Laden and outlawed the education of women.

Since 2004, the predominantly Pashtun movement re-emerged and mounted an effective insurgency against Western forces and the Afghan government. The Taliban’s influence spread in the often lawless territories of northwestern Pakistan to the point where they challenged that government’s hold over cities as well as the countryside.

Militarily, the Taliban have been under stress since American forces doubled their presence in southern Afghanistan in 2010 and greatly increased the number of special forces raids aimed at hunting down Taliban commanders. The hope was to wear down the Taliban military to the point where it would be willing to consider negotiations.

Even so, the Taliban found new and more subtle ways of asserting themselves, using tactics like controlling the hours of cellphone use, more selective attacks and new flexibility on matters like education, even as NATO generals portray the insurgents as a diminished force less able to hold ground.

In 2012, American officials were working to find some way of reaching an agreement with the Taliban before the drawdown of forces underway was complete.

Parents of P.O.W. Reveal U.S. Talks on Prisoner Swap

In May 2012, the parents of the only American soldier held captive by the Taliban broke a yearlong silence about the status of their son, abruptly making public that he is a focus of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the group over a proposed prisoner exchange.

The negotiations, which were stalled when the parents made them public, involved a trade of five Taliban prisoners held at the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of the Army, who is believed to be held by the offshootHaqqani network in the tribal area of Pakistan’s northwest frontier, on the Afghan border. Sergeant Bergdahl was captured in Paktika Province in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. His family had not heard from him in a year, since they saw him in a Taliban video, although they and the Pentagon believe that he is alive and well.

The family’s decision to end its silence could free up the Obama administration to discuss the case publicly and reframe the debate in Washington about releasing the Taliban prisoners, which is seen as a crucial confidence-building measure in efforts to strike a political settlement with the Taliban. American officials believe that a peace deal would help ensure Afghanistan’s stability after 2014, when most American and NATO forces will have left the country. In the absence of a prisoner exchange agreement, those talks are “moribund,” one Western official said.

The administration has said publicly only that the negotiations included talks about releasing the five prisoners from Guantánamo to the custody of the government in Qatar — which some Democrats and Republicans in Congress have opposed — and not that the five might be exchanged for Sergeant Bergdahl.

Peace Talks Derailed; Haqqani Network Strikes

Hopes for negotiations with the Taliban were raised in January 2012, when they announced that they were ready to explore peace talks with the United States.

But the Taliban suspended talks, after a series of incidents — including accusations that Robert Bales, a United States Army staff sergeant, killed 17 Afghan civilians and that American troops had burned Korans — increased widespread anger toward the United States, leading to discussions within the White House about speeding up the withdrawal of troops. After the killings, the Talibanthreatened vengeance; a statement posted online said the killings were the latest in a series of humiliations against the Afghan people.

In early April, to accelerate the transition of military responsibility to the Afghan government, the United States agreed to hand control of special operations missions to Afghan forces, including night raids, relegating American troops to a supporting role and bringing the raids under Afghan judicial authority.

But a week later, on April 15, in synchronized attacks clearly designed to undermine confidence in NATO and Afghan forces,Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen barraged the diplomatic quarter and the Parliament in Kabul for hours and struck three eastern provinces as well. The assaults were an early test for the Afghan forces, who responded with only minimal help from NATO. Western officials said the attacks bore the hallmarks of the Haqqani network.

Negotiating Peace Talks

In January 2012 — before the Koran burning and the attack by the American soldier — the Taliban gave their first public sign that they were ready for peace talks. On Jan. 3, the Taliban announced that they had struck a deal to open a peace mission in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The step was a sharp reversal of the Taliban’s longstanding public denials that they were involved or interested in any negotiations to end their insurgency in Afghanistan

A spokesman for the Taliban said that along with agreeing to set up the office, the group was asking that Taliban detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, be released. The spokesman did not say when the Qatar office would be opened, or give specifics about the prisoners the Taliban wanted freed.

Initially, President Karzai had opposed the Qatar office but agreed after prodding by his American and European backers, who promoted the office as a way to give Afghan and Western peace negotiators an “address” where they could openly contact Taliban intermediaries. American and Afghan officials said that setting it up in a country like Qatar would have the added benefit of lessening Pakistani influence over the Taliban.

At the end of January, several former Taliban officials said that some Taliban negotiators had already begun meeting with American officials in Qatar, to discuss preliminary trust-building measures, including a possible prisoner transfer. As preliminary talks progressed, Afghan officials said they feared a “secret deal” between the United States and the Taliban.

Concerned that it was being left out of the talks between the United States and the Taliban, the Afghan government was pushing to open its own direct negotiations with the insurgent group in Saudi Arabia, Afghan officials said on Jan. 30. It was not clear whether the effort to start parallel talks would succeed or amount to nothing more than an attempt by President Karzai to regain momentum after feeling sidelined by the American efforts to open the Qatar office.

Attempting to Deal With the Pakistani Taliban

Pakistan urged the Afghan Taliban to start talks with the Kabul government. In February 2012, following a phone discussion with Mr. Karzai, the Pakistani prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, issued a statement calling on the Taliban and “all other Afghan groups, including Hizb-e-Islami,” a pro-Taliban militant group with historical ties to Pakistan, to participate in what is referred to as a reconciliation process.

The statement, which came less than 24 hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Pakistan’s foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, in London, was potentially significant because the Taliban leadership — and many of their fighters — are believed to be sheltering in Pakistan.

The Pakistani government has its own problems with the militants on its soil. The government has attempted to engage in direct peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, in the process contributing to a rift in the leadership of the militant group.

In early March, militant commanders in Bajaur, a small but strategically important tribal district on the Afghan border, spoke out strongly against the news that their leader, the Taliban deputy commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, had been fired at a shura, or leadership council, meeting.

In an interview, the commanders, Maulana Abdul Mutalib, Fazal Khan, Maulvi Abdullah and Liaqat Khan, threatened to set up a rival group.

Simmering tensions between Mr. Muhammad and the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, spilled into the open in January 2012, when it emerged that Mr. Muhammad had unilaterally entered into peace talks with the Pakistani government. Mr. Muhammad said the government had released 145 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture, an assertion not confirmed by the government.

The rift highlights strains within the ranks of the Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, whose ability to carry out attacks has been hurt by a combination of American drone strikes in its Waziristan stronghold in the mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, and Pakistani military operations elsewhere in the tribal belt.

In Pakistan, Taliban Old and New

After fleeing Afghanistan, Taliban leaders found a stronghold is the Pakistani city of Quetta, where Taliban leaders in exile are believed to play a significant role in stirring violence in southern Afghanistan. From Quetta, Taliban leaders, including MullahMuhammad Omar, a reclusive, one-eyed cleric, guide commanders in southern Afghanistan and have raised money from wealthy Persian Gulf donors and delivered guns and fresh fighters to the battlefield.

Independent Pakistani branches of the Taliban sprang up, led by veterans of the fighting in Afghanistan who come from the border regions. They have supported the fight against foreign forces in Afghanistan by supplying fighters, training and logistical aid.

The Pakistani Taliban are dominated by three powerful commanders — Hakimullah Mehsud (who may have been killed), Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulavi Nazir — based in North and South Waziristan, the hub of insurgent activity in Pakistan’s tribal border regions, who have often clashed among themselves. Mullah Omar dispatched a six-member team to Waziristan in late 2008, and in February 2009, they formed a united council called the Council of United Mujahedeen. In a printed statement the leaders vowed to put aside their disputes and focus on fighting American-led forces in Afghanistan.

Units of the Taliban have also linked up with militants in Pakistan’s Punjab province, home to half of the country’s population. The deadly assault in March 2009 in Lahore, Punjab’s capital, against the Sri Lankan cricket team, and the bombing in September 2008 of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, the national capital, were only the most spectacular examples of the joint campaign.

Intelligence officials said the Taliban’s effort to move into the country’s heartland was motivated partly by the need to find new safe havens, as bombing by American drone aircraft increased in the tribal areas. But it also represented a decision by Punjabi militants to make common cause with the Taliban after the government’s siege of Islamic hard-liners at the Red Mosque in Islamabad in mid-2007. The siege has since become a rallying cry.

Trying to Keep the Taliban Contained

For many years, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency has offered money, supplies and guidance to the Taliban forces in Afghanistan as a proxy to help shape a friendly government there once American forces leave. It offered significant resistance to efforts to take on the Taliban as the movement began to threaten Pakistan itself.

Over more than a year of fighting, the Taliban moved into the Swat valley of northwestern Pakistan. Finally, the military agreed to a truce in February 2009 that all but ceded Swat to the Taliban and allowed the insurgents to impose Islamic law, or Shariah. Taliban militants, most of them under the leadership of Mullah Fazlullah, continued usurping and attacking the government anyway. Soon after, the Taliban took over Buner, an adjoining district only 60 miles from Islamabad.

The deepening Taliban advance startled Pakistanis, and it finally spurred military and political leaders to take on a full-scale military operation to push the Taliban back, under strong American pressure. The campaign was waged fiercely in what appeared to be a change of heart in the Pakistani Army. The reaction from the Taliban was swift.

The United States pressed the army to move ahead with the campaign in South Waziristan, arguing that it was vital for Pakistan to show resolve against the Qaeda-fortified Pakistani Taliban, who embrace a vast and dedicated network of militant groups arrayed against the nuclear-armed state. The groups include some nurtured by Pakistan to fight India.

Income From Donors, Drugs and Crime

The Taliban in Afghanistan run a sophisticated financial network to pay for their operations, raising hundreds of millions of dollars from the illicit drug trade, kidnappings, extortion and foreign donations that American officials say they are struggling to cut off. A trove of classified documents released in July 2010 revealed that Taliban fighters had used mobile surface-to-air missiles, of the kind that helped defeat the Soviet Union, against American aircraft.

Estimates of the Taliban’s annual revenue vary widely. Proceeds from the illicit drug trade alone range from $70 million to $400 million a year, according to Pentagon and United Nations officials. Despite efforts by the United States and its allies to cripple the Taliban’s financing in 2009, using the military and intelligence, American officials acknowledge that they barely made a dent.

American officials say they have been surprised to learn that foreign donations, rather than opium, are the single largest source of cash for the Taliban. The C.I.A. recently estimated in a classified report that Taliban leaders and their associates had received $106 million in 2009 from donors outside Afghanistan. Private citizens from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and some Persian Gulf nations are the largest individual contributors, an American counterterrorism official said.

A third major source of financing is criminal activity, including kidnappings and protection payments from legitimate businesses seeking to operate in Taliban-controlled territory, American authorities say.

In Pakistan, a campaign of high-profile kidnappings has provided the Pakistani Taliban and its allies with new resources, arming insurgents with millions of dollars, threatening foreign aid programs and galvanizing a sophisticated network of jihadi and criminal gangs whose reach spans the country.

Wealthy industrialists, academics, Western aid workers and relatives of military officers have been targets in a spree that, since it started in 2009, has spread to every major city, reaching the wealthiest neighborhoods, Pakistani security officials say.

For many hostages, the experience means a harrowing journey into the heart of Waziristan, the fearsome Taliban redoubt along the Afghan border that has borne the brunt of a C.I.A. drone-strike campaign.

Kidnapping is a centuries-old scourge in parts of Pakistan, from the tribesmen who snatched British colonists in the 19th century to the slum gangs that have preyed on Karachi business families since the 1980s. The national total has varied only slightly in recent years: from 474 kidnappings for ransom in 2010 to 467 in 2011, according to Interior Ministry figures.

What has changed, however, is the increased level of Taliban involvement.

9/11 and the War in Afghanistan

After the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush gave the Taliban an ultimatum to hand over Osama bin Laden. When they refused, the United States joined forces with rebel groups that had never accepted Taliban rule, notably the Northern Alliance, which represented minority tribes. An air and ground campaign began that drove the Taliban out of the major Afghan cities by the end of the year.

But the Taliban continued to exist, living as a guerrilla warfare operation based in the mountainous and largely lawless tribal area on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. As the American military focus was diverted to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Taliban regrouped and began to extend their influence in the southern part of Afghanistan.

The resurgence of the opium trade helped fill the group’s coffers. As the fighting continued, the ranks of the Taliban were bolstered by foreign recruits from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, various Arab countries and perhaps Turkey and western China. By late 2007, 5 to 10 percent of full-time Taliban fighters were believed to be foreigners and foreign-born men had replaced mid-level and senior Taliban commanders who had been killed in combat.

Ghazni — most dangerous province in Afghanistan?

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:45:38 +0100

There were more attacks in Ghazni than there were in Kandahar and Helmand in the fourth quarter of 2010,

according to a recently released report by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO),

a non-profit which advises humanitarian organizations on the security situation in Afghanistan.

This makes Ghazni province, where most Polish troops are stationed, the most violenct province in Afghanistan.

The surge is certainly to blame at least in-part,

as operations pushed the Taliban out of their traditional strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar (historically the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan).

Obama personally oversees al Qaeda 'kill list': Report

Wed, 30 May 2012 20:25:17 +0100

US President Barack Obama has personally overseen a top-secret process for determining which al Qaeda suspects should be placed on a "kill list". PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has personally overseen a top-secret process for determining which al Qaeda suspects should be placed on a “kill list”, The New York Timesreported Tuesday.

The Times, citing dozens of top officials and former advisers, said the administration had developed what it termed the “kill list” as part of a stepped-up drone war against al Qaeda and its affiliates in Pakistan and Yemen.

“He is determined that he will make these decisions about how far and wide these operations will go,” it quoted National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon as saying.

“His view is that he’s responsible for the position of the United States in the world… He’s determined to keep the tether pretty short.”

The Times described the top-secret process, which begins with some 100 counter-terrorism officials sifting through biographies and “nominating” suspects in Yemen and Somalia to be added to the kill list during a secure video conference run by the Pentagon.

The CIA carries out a separate process for suspects in Pakistan, it said.

The nominations then go to Obama, who signs off on every strike in Yemen and Somalia and also on especially complex and risky strikes in Pakistan — about a third of the total, the Times said.

Obama personally approves the killing of top suspects, such as Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaqi – a US citizen – who was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen last year.

The Times quoted former White House chief of staff William Daley as saying that Obama called the decision to strike Awlaqi “an easy one,” but Daley said some officials had expressed some qualms about the kill list.

“One guy gets knocked off, and the guy’s driver, who’s No 21, becomes 20?” The Times quoted Daley as saying. “At what point are you just filling the bucket with numbers?”

The Times also described an internal debate over the administration’s disputed method for counting casualties, in which men of fighting age within striking distance of a suspect are considered militants.

It quoted one official as saying that al Qaeda was an insular, paranoid organization that would keep its distance from outsiders

But others said the Obama administration’s claim that the number of civilians killed in drone strikes in Pakistan was in the “single digits” was unrealistic.

Federal govt miffed over K-P’s demand to move Afridi

Wed, 30 May 2012 20:14:23 +0100

PESHAWAR: Disputes have surfaced between federal and provincial authorities after the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government wrote a letter to the federal government to shift Dr Shakil Afridi from Peshawar Central Prison, citing threats to his life.

Sources within Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Home and Tribal Affairs Department confirmed that a letter was written last week and that the federal government is yet to respond to the letter.

“This is a very serious issue. Afridi’s life is in danger and we have been in close contact with the federal government. We wrote them a letter to shift Afridi, probably to Adiala Jail. However, we are yet to receive a response from the federal government,” the source said.

Strict security measures have been taken inside the Peshawar prison where Afridi, sentenced to 33 years of imprisonment by an assistant political agent of Khyber Agency, is being held.

According to recently revealed court documents, Dr Afridi has been convicted for his links to the banned Khyber Agency-based militant outfit Lashkar-e-Islam. The controversial doctor had also helped American intelligence officials track down Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts in Pakistan by running a fake polio vaccination campaign.

11 militants killed in US drone attacks in Pakistan PTI | 11:05 PM,May 28,2012

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:19:45 +0100

Islamabad, May 28 (PTI) US spy planes carried out two strikes in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan today, killing 11 militants as the CIA stepped up its drone campaign against the backdrop of increased tensions between Islamabad and Washington. In the first attack early this morning, the CIA-operated drones fired at least eight missiles at a compound and a vehicle at Hassokhel, 25 km from Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency. At least seven militants were killed. The drones struck twice within half an hour, local residents said. Foreign fighters, including Uzbeks and Arabs, are believed to be present in the area targeted. Later in the evening, a drone targeted a vehicle in Datta Khel, 30 km from Miranshah, and killed four militants. At least 29 militants have died in five drone attacks carried out in the past six days. Four militants were killed in a drone strike on May 26 while four more were killed in an attack near Miranshah on May 23. Ten militants, mostly foreigners, were killed in yet another missile strike on May 24. The US stepped up drone strikes last week shortly after the conclusion of the NATO Summit in Chicago, where Pakistan did not make any announcement about ending a nearly six-month blockade of supply routes to Afghanistan.

U.S. sailor is 3,000th Afghanistan war death

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:17:10 +0100

A U.S. sailor who died last week of medical complications was the 3,000th death among coalition forces in the Afghanistan war, according to CNN's count based on information provided by the U.S. Defense Department and the International Security Assistance Force.

Petty Officer 1st Class Ryan J. Wilson, 26, of Shasta, California, died May 20 in Manama, Bahrain, the Defense Department reported in an e-mail Friday.

Wilson, assigned to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain, was supporting the Afghanistan mission, the e-mail said. Home and Away: Casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq

He was the 1,974th U.S. death in the war that started October 7, 2001, and the 3,000th overall death from the U.S.-led international coalition engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom.

The coalition includes 50 countries. Britain has the second-largest number of dead from the mission at 414, according to the CNN figures.

U.S. official: American kidnapped in Benin

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:06:31 +0100

A U.S. citizen has been kidnapped in the West African nation of Benin, a U.S. State Department official said Sunday.

The official, who asked not to be named given the sensitivity of the situation, said that U.S. diplomatic officials are providing "consular assistance" in the case. Authorities have not indicated when or under what circumstances the person was kidnapped, nor have they identified the abductee.

"Due to privacy considerations, we cannot provide additional information," the official said.

The former French colony of Benin is a country of about 9 million people that has a small coastline on the Gulf of Guinea. "The United States and Benin have had an excellent history of relations in the years since Benin embraced democracy" in 1990, according to a U.S. State Department website.

2 Troops killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:04:42 +0100

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two International Security Assistance Force troops were killed in one of two helicopter crashes Monday in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.

Separately, three police and four tribal elders were killed in a roadside bombing, police said.

The first helicopter crash, during a routine operation, did not result in any fatalities, said ISAF spokesman Capt. Justin Brockhoff. Two died in the second crash, ISAF said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in an e-mail that the two helicopters were shot down and 36 soldiers died, but ISAF said there were no reports of enemy activity in the area where the crashes occurred.

A third ISAF service member died Monday in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said in a news release. No further details were released on the attack or the crashes.

After the first crash, those on board the chopper were taken to a NATO facility for evaluation. The crash did not harm civilians or damage property, ISAF said.

Some previous helicopter crashes involving ISAF members were the result of enemy fire, while others were for mechanical reasons.

The single deadliest loss for U.S. troops since the Afghan war began in late 2001 happened in August. Thirty U.S. service members died when a helicopter carrying them went down while they were reinforcing other troops, officials said. Seven Afghan troops died as well.

A U.S. military official said then that insurgents were believed to have shot down the CH-47 Chinook. The Taliban said that militants downed the helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.

More recently, 12 people died in March when a helicopter crashed in Afghanistan's capital city, Kabul. And in April, the Taliban claimed responsibility for downing a Black Hawk helicopter in southern Afghanistan.

The roadside bombing Monday struck a car in northern Baghlan province. All seven in the car died, police said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility in a text message from Mujahid. The police were targeted, he said.

3 passers-by killed as bomb targets police van in Quetta

Mon, 28 May 2012 17:58:50 +0100

* Nine people, including a policeman, injured in attack

* Up to 15 kilogrammes of explosives used in blast

Staff Report

QUETTA: At least three people were killed and nine others, including a policeman, injured in a remote-controlled blast on Saryab Road on Sunday.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Sikandar Tareen said explosives were planted underneath a donkey cart, while the target was a patrolling police van.

He said unidentified men detonated the explosives when the patrolling vehicle of New Saryab Police Station passed by. Three passers-by – two onboard the donkey cart and rickshaw driver – were killed, while nine others, including a station house officer, sustained injures, he said.

A heavy contingent of Frontier Corps (FC) and police rushed to the crime scene soon after the explosion and cordoned off the area.

The bodies and the injured were shifted to the Sandeman Provincial Hospital, where a state of emergency had already been declared.

The police vehicle and two rickshaws were damaged in the blast, while the windowpanes of several shops were smashed due to the shockwave.

According to the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), around 10 to 15 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the attack.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Younus and Mohammad Arif, while the third victim, who is said to be a rickshaw driver, is yet to be ascertained.

The United Baloch Army claimed responsibility for the blast. A spokesman for the organisation, who introduced himself as Mureed Baloch, phoned some media outlets in Quetta and said his organisation was responsible for the blast.