June 2017 Pakistan bombings

June 2017 Pakistan bombings
Part of the War in North-West Pakistan
Quetta Parachinar Karachi Location of incidents shown in the map of Pakistan.
Location	Quetta, Parachinar and Karachi, Pakistan
Date	23 June 2017
Target	Law enforcement personnel and civilians
Attack type	Suicide car bombing, targeted killing
Weapons	Bombs, explosive belt
Deaths	Quetta: 14 Parachinar: 78 Karachi: 4
Non-fatal injuries	Quetta: at least 20 Parachinar: 200+ Karachi: 1
Perpetrators	Jamaat-ul-Ahrar ISIL – Khorasan Ansar al-Sharia Pakistan
Motive	Terrorism

On 23 June 2017, a series of terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan resulting in 96 dead and over 200 wounded. They included a suicide bombing in Quetta targeting policemen, followed by two blasts at a market in Parachinar, and the targeted killing of four policemen in Karachi.

Responsibility for the Quetta attack was claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and ISIL, while no group accepted responsibility for the Parachinar attack. According to the Pakistani military, both attacks were coordinated from terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

The attacks followed earlier blasts that had occurred in Quetta and Parachinar in 2017: Quetta on 13 February and 21 April; and Parachinar on 21 January and 31 March. In response to these and other attacks, the Pakistani military had launched Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad in February which aimed to eliminate the "residual/latent threat of terrorism". A period of relative calm followed in between, although Balochistan witnessed minor violence in June when three security personnel were injured from an improvised explosive device targeting their vehicle, and two Pakistan Navy sailors were killed after their vehicle was targeted in Jiwani.

The bombings were carried out on Jumu'atul-Wida, the last Friday of the Hijri month of Ramadan before the Eid ul-Fitr celebrations.

Earlier in the day, a suicide car bombing took place at 08:45 local time (03:45 GMT) at the Shuhada Chowk on Quetta's Gulistan Road targeting policemen. The attacker first attempted to ram his explosives-laden vehicle into a peripheral wall of the Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob's office, situated in the area. The car was driven into the wall, but it failed to explode. The policemen present at the site, unaware of the fact that the car was rigged with explosives, recovered the vehicle from the wall and brought it to Shuhada Chowk. They ordered the driver — the would-be bomber, to get down and began searching the vehicle. The bomber refused to descend and instead triggered the explosives.