At least eight worshippers were killed and several others injured on Sunday in a suicide bombing at a church in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s restive Southwestern Balochisan province.
Around four militants attacked the church located on Zarghon Road of the provincial capital when the Sunday service was going on, according to police.
Interior Minister of the country’s southwest Balochistan province Sarfraz Bugti said that two terrorists attacked a church located at the Zarghoon Road area of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.
Bugti said that one of the attackers was killed by police guards at the main entrance of church while the second one blew himself up inside the church.
According to Bugti, at the time of attack around 500 people were offering their prayers in the church.
Health Minister of the province, Rehmat Baloch, said that rescue teams have shifted four injured to the hospital so far.
DIG police Abadul Razzaq Cheema, said that two more attackers were involved but they ran away after one of the attackers was gunned down by police. He said the fleeing militants were chased by police and killed.
No group took responsibility of the attack but the Taliban militants targeted minorities including Christians in the past.
Following the attack, an emergency was imposed in all hospitals across Quetta.
Police teams and rescue teams have reached the site of the explosion, and the area has been cordoned off.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal condemned the attack, which came a day after Pakistan observed the third anniversary of the Peshawar school attack of 2014, which killed at least 150 people, mostly students.
