At least 20 people were injured in a bomb blast at a pro-autonomy rally in Pakistan's Baluchistan province Aug. 26. Officials said a bomb rigged to a parked motorcycle detonated near the rally's stage in the town of Jaaferabad, leaving some people in a critical condition. The rally was held to mark the second anniversary of the killing during a military operation of Nawab Akbar Bugti [2], a tribal chieftain and former Baluchistan governor. Bugti led an armed campaign to pressure the central government to award Baluchistan a larger share of revenues from oil and gas extracted from the region.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, armed men opened fire on the car of a US diplomat in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province. Officials said Lynne Tracy, the principle officer for the US consulate in Peshawar, escaped the attack without injury. (AlJazeera [3], Aug. 26)
Now, presumably the Baluch separatists would not be blowing up their own supporters. So who was behind this attack? Some jihadi types still in the pay of the ISI doing a little freelance work against fellow Sunni militants who happen to oppose Islamabad?
See our last posts on Pakistan [4] and Baluchistan [5].
