At least 52 people were killed and dozens more wounded in what authorities believe was a suicide attack at a religious procession in southwest Pakistan Friday.
The explosion occurred in the Mastung district of the restive Balochistan province, as people celebrated the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, the information minister of the province Jan Achakzai told CNN.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area, has seen a decades-long insurgency by separatists who demand independence from the country, citing what they say is the state’s monopoly and exploitation of the region’s mineral resources.
Meanwhile, a separate blast took place during Friday prayers at a mosque near Peshawar City in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing at least two people and injuring 11.
Local police told CNN two explosions had occurred at the mosque in Hangu, causing its roof to collapse and potentially trapping worshipers inside.
Honestly there will probably be no resolution. Pakistani Intelligence services will put pressure on their contacts in the insurgent groups, find and kill the planners of the attack. But nothing otherwise will change. There could be a long term resolution if Balochistan gets richer somehow, and therefore more influential.
It should be noted that the Pakistan intelligence services are an incredibly Machiavellian group. They quite often tend to know where every terrorist group is based, what they are planning, who and where the leaders are, etc.
So why don’t they do anything about it? Well, having a terror group on the payroll is very useful sometimes. Whether you want a politician dead, an Afghan Taliban member surveilled or dead, need to justify funding. Now they aren’t the illuminati, they don’t control them directly, they just tend to just not care when the terrorist groups are targeting someone they don’t like.
Again not the illuminati and there have been times when they fuck up, including a Taliban attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar, a K-12, where the Taliban specifically went for the older kids of security forces personal as they are less replaceable. Astoundingly evil honestly, was the country’s 9/11 moment for sure.
If you want to get an idea of how the politics of Pakistan work, ‘The Assassination’ (of Benazir Bhutto) by the BBC World Service is incredibly insightful. It’s from a reporter who was very close to the ex-PM and witnessed everything first hand.