Monday, 9 August, 2021 I 29 Zil-Hajj, 1442 I Rs 40.00 I Vol XII No 40 I 48 Pages I Lahore Edition
Two policemen marTyred, aT leasT 12 injured in QueTTa blasT Taliban seize two more Afghanistan provincial capitals in northern blitz KABUL ReuteRs
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wo policemen were killed, while at least 12 other people were left injured after an explosion rocked Quetta near its Serena Hotel on Sunday evening. Police said that the explosion took place at Zarghoon Road, near the city’s University Chowk, adding that the explosives were planted on a motorcycle. The explosion took place near a police van. The injured, including two policemen, have been shifted to the city’s Civil Hospital, Deputy Inspector General Quetta said, adding that the windows of nearby buildings were shattered due to the explosion. Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan also condemned the attack and expressed sadness
over the martyrdom of the two police personnel. “Terrorist elements want to ruin the province’s peace. [we] will never allow terrorists to succeed in their nefarious plans,” he was quoted as saying in a statement. The chief minister directed officials to submit a report into the attack and to provide the best available treatment facilities to the injured. Separately, a vendor was injured on Quetta’s Sariab Road after unidentified persons hurled a grenade at his roadside stall where he was selling Pakistan flags and other paraphernalia ahead of 14th August. The incidents come more than three months after a powerful bomb exploded in the parking lot of the Quetta Serena Hotel, killing
five people and wounding a dozen others. Since then, there have been a number of attacks in the city in which security personnel and civilians were wounded or lost their lives. Late last month, at least four people were injured and a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle was damaged in a blast in Hazar Ganji, a locality on the outskirts of Quetta. on July 1, at least six security personnel were injured, two of them seriously, in a motorcycle bomb explosion that targeted an army convoy on Quetta’s Airport Road. Balochistan Inspector General Mohammad Tahir Rai had said that an IED had been planted on the motorcycle, which was detonated by remote control. News Desk
Taliban fighters overran two provincial capitals, including the strategic northeastern city of Kunduz and northern Sar-e Pol on Sunday, local officials said, as the insurgents intensified pressure on the north and threatened further cities. Taliban fighters seized key government buildings in the city of Kunduz, leaving government forces hanging onto control of the airport and their own base, a provincial assembly lawmaker said on Sunday. The Taliban have also taken government buildings in the northern provincial capital of Sar-e Pol, driving officials out of the main city to a nearby military base, Mohammad Noor Rahmani, a provincial council member of Sar-e Pol province, said. A Taliban offensive has gathered momentum in recent days, as the insurgents unleashed their forces across Afghanistan after the United States announced it would end its military mission in the country by the end of August. on Friday, the insurgents captured their first provincial capital in years when they took control of Zaranj, on the border with Iran in Afghanistan’s southern Nimroz province. In recent days the Taliban have escalated attacks on northern provinces, which lie outside their traditional strongholds in the south but where the group has been quickly taking
ground, often along the border of Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbours and trading partners Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. on Sunday, a local police source and an official source said Taloqan, the capital of northern Takhar province was also under pressure with civilians trying to flee the city and heavy fighting taking place after the Taliban seized some government buildings. on Saturday, heavy fighting took place in Sheberghan, the capital of northern Jawzjan province. The Taliban said they had captured the entire province. Jawzjan provincial council member Shir Mohammad said most of Sheberghan, including provincial government buildings, had fallen to the Taliban.
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