The death toll of a Pakistani Taliban suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim procession reached 73 with 200 wounded in the southwestern city of Quetta on Friday. Dramatic television footage displayed what appeared to be the suicide blast followed by heavy gunfire and images of casualties being treated. [see video below]
Yesterday's attack comes on the heels of a triple suicide bombing in Lahore that left 37 dead on Wednesday, also aimed at a Shiite procession.
"Our war is against American and Pakistani security forces, but Shiites are also our target because they, too, are our enemies," Pakistani Taliban commander Qari Hussain Mehsud told The Associated Press.
Mehsud, whose group is formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), announced that he was proud the U.S. added his organization to the international terrorist blacklist earlier in the week and threatened more attacks in U.S. and Europe in coming days similar to the recent Times Square bombing.
"We will in coming days strike inside America and Europe," he told The Associated Press. "We will prove that we have ability to strike right in their countries."
These attacks should not be seen simply as sectarian in nature, for they are designed to disrupt the government. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group have been collaborating to destabilize Pakistan.
"They are infidels," Malik told reporters in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, Shiite leaders blamed the government for failing to protect them and called a general strike in Quetta, where all schools shut down for a day of mourning. Shiites make up 20 percent of the population in the Sunni-dominated Muslim country.
Pakistan's weak civilian government is struggling to deal with massive flooding and the incessant militant violence aimed at overthrowing the Western-backed administration. The U.S. condemned the attacks as well:
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said U.S. officials "strongly condemn the recent barbaric attacks on religious processions in Lahore and Quetta and on a place of worship in Mardan, near Peshawar. Our sympathies are with the victims and their families and all those affected by these cruel acts of hatred. We stand with all of the people of Pakistan who should have the freedom to peacefully observe their religion, especially during Ramadan, and focus on rebuilding their lives after the floods, not mourn friends and family killed in terrorist attacks."
The Punjabi and Pakistani Taliban have no qualms about attacking both Shia and Sunni mosques and other Islamic institutions, having launched 25 major attacks in Pakistan since December 2007, according to information compiled by The Long War Journal.
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