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Quetta blast retaliation from India for Kashmir situation: Analyst

Wednesday, 10 August 2016 9:24 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 10 August 2016 9:25 AM ]

Pakistani security officials and lawyers gather around the bodies of victims killed in a bomb explosion at a government hospital premises in Quetta on August 8, 2016. (AFP photo)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Navid Ahmad, an investigative journalist, and Matiullah Jan, a journalist and political commentator, to discuss the recent bomb explosion at a hospital where a group of lawyers had gathered in the restive city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan.

Ahmad believes that the terrorist bomb attack in Quetta could be in “retaliation” for the situation which India cannot control in the Indian-administered Kashmir.

According to Ahmad, Balochistan is not a “primary target” for the Taliban, and that the Indian intelligence agency has a great role there.

The analyst goes on to say that the splinter group behind the attack is similar to the one which was used by India [to target] a military airbase in the north of Panjab and also Mehran base in the south of Pakistan.

“So I am really clear that this is not one of the attacks from a splinter group per se that spread from Taliban and wanted to send a message across in this particular area,” he says.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmad argues that the entire scene is set to give an impression to the Chinese that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not going to work.

“CPEC is directly having implications for India’s desire to have geographical or logistical link to Afghanistan for which India is using other means, other neighbors of Pakistan to go around and get into Afghanistan and Central Asia,” he states.

Jan, for his part, believes that the Quetta blast was a very “calculated” and “well-planned” move by terrorists.

However, he thinks there was a failure on the part of intelligence agencies and security forces of Balochistan to “forewarn” such an attack given the previous similar incidents.

The commentator further notes that there is no doubt that India is involved in whatever is happening in Pakistan, particularly because of the CPEC which alters the economic balance of the whole region.

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