Nine Killed and Dozens Wounded in Quetta Church Attack

Quetta: A terrorist attack on Bethel Memorial Methodist Memorial Church killed nine and wounded dozens of people, on Sunday noon.

The Church located at a distance of 400 Meter away from the red zone of Quetta on Zarghoon Road was attacked by unidentified terrorists when a Sunday service prayer was underway.

Two terrorists can be seen in a CCTV video jumping down the gate of the Church once the gate was closed by the guard of the Church.

According to the security officials, one terrorist exploded his suicide vest outside the main building of the church and the second one was shot dead by the security forces after an exchange of fire.

Inspector General (IG) Balochistan Police told media that more than 400 people were present inside the Church when the terrorists broke inside the premises.

Till the filing of this report, nine people have been confirmed dead whereas conflicting reports are appearing about the number of wounded. The number of wounded can be in the range of 30 to 57 people.

Provincial Minister for Home and Tribal Affairs Sarfraz Bugti told media that among the wounded 7 people are critically wounded.

Once the security forces cleared the compound of the Church then a search operation was conducted to locate two missing terrorists. Initially, security forces had claimed that there were four terrorists in total and two were killed and two have escaped.

According to latest available reports, the two allegedly missing terrorists were not located. Some security officials later claimed that CCTV footage showed just two terrorists and the total number of terrorists was two and not four.

So-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack which could not be confirmed from independent sources.

Anita Irfan, Minority Member of Provincial Assembly representing PML-N talked to media persons at the site of the blast once it was cleared. She appreciated the rapid response of the security forces which prevented a large-scale massacre in the church.

Balochistan has seen numerous terrorist attacks in last few years. A suicide blast in Sandeman Provincial Hospital resulted in death of over 50 lawyers in August last year.