State will continue go after forces of evil with all its might: COAS

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir said Saturday that the terrorists will continue to face the full might of the state and security forces backed by a resilient nation after 59 people lost their lives in a suicide blast in Balochistan's Mastung.

A suicide bomber Friday targeted people gearing up for a procession related to Eid Miladun Nabi — the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) — near a mosque in the Mastung district.

The army chief, according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said: "Such incidents of terrorism on 12 Rabi al-Awwal depict the ill intent of the khawarij, who have the backing of state sponsors of terrorism."

"These terrorists and their facilitators, having no link with religion and ideology, are proxies of the enemies of Pakistan and its people," General Munir added.

"These forces of evil will continue to face the full might of the state and security forces backed by a resilient nation," COAS said while reassuring that the army's operations against terrorists would continue unabated.

"People of Pakistan have rejected terrorists’ pseudo ideology and propaganda of their backers and they are fully committed to peace, economic progress and human development which indeed is causing a lot of distress to forces of evil in and outside of Pakistan."

The briefing was also attended by interim Minister of Interior Sarfraz Bugti, caretaker Chief Minister Balochistan Ali Mardan Khan Domki, and key provincial ministers along with senior civil and military officials.

Following the briefing, the COAS visited Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Quetta, where he met the injured and families of the Mastung incident, "who are being provided full medical care by Pakistan Army", the ISPR said.

COAS reassured full support to the families of the martyrs and said that the terrorists, their abettors, and facilitators will not be spared.

The death toll from the suicide blast in Mastung rose to 59, a spokesperson of the Civil Hospital Quetta said Saturday, as seven more succumbed to their injuries.

Hours after the blast in Balochistan, a second attack took place at a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Hangu city and claimed the lives of five people — including a policeman — and injured 12.

The incident took place within the parametres of Police Station Doaba during the Friday sermon — a time when scores of believers are gathered at a mosque for their weekly prayer.

Bugti said earlier today that the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is involved in carrying out terror incidents in Pakistan.

The minister, in a press conference in Quetta, said that the authorities knew who was involved in these activities and would avenge every drop of blood of Pakistanis.

"We know who is doing it and from where," Bugti maintained, vowing to utilise all state resources against militants.