Suicide bomber kills at least 14 in Pakistan
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Nick Miles, and in the early hours of Monday the 3rd of August, these are our main stories. A deadly attack in Pakistan. We examine who's behind it and what it means for tensions in the wider region. Two people have been killed in Greece after helicopters tackling wildfires crashed into each other mid-air.
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What happened in the Swat Valley suicide bombing and who claimed responsibility?
For decades, Islamist groups have plagued parts of northwestern Pakistan, abducting civilians, attacking the authorities and destroying infrastructure. Those groups have coalesced into the Tariq-e-Taliban or Pakistani Taliban. It's that group that says it carried out a suicide bomb attack earlier on Sunday that killed at least 15 people in an area called the Swat Valley, north of the capital Islamabad. The attack took place as people were gathered to take part in an anti-militant peace rally. Mohammad Umar Khan is a local police officer. There was a protest going on at the centre of Kabul. The town police station is located directly opposite from it. There were police lines. The suicide attack took place at the police station.
The deceased and injured include police officials as well. Our global affairs reporter Amritsar Netirajan told me more about the Pakistani Taliban.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is an alliance of various Islamist militant groups and they have been operating in northwestern part of Pakistan for a long time. They were driven out. Some of them were said to be inside neighboring Afghanistan. In fact, they share the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban who are currently in power. And several experts pointed out that the TTP, the Pakistani Taliban, helped the Afghan Taliban during the war against the Western-backed government and before the Taliban seized power in Kabul. And this has also led to tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan because Pakistan accuses the Taliban administration of providing safe haven to militants who are carrying out attacks on its security forces and civilian targets, an accusation strongly denied by the Afghan Taliban government.
And briefly, this group, their overall ideology is to overthrow the Pakistan government?
They want an Islamic governance in areas under their control, and they were imposing strict controls like this when they were partly controlling this area in Swat Valley itself about 15 years ago.
How does the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan operate and why are attacks increasing now?
But there have been a number of social media messages about increasing attacks, and there have been attacks on security forces not at the same level as in other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, And that is why people got worried. That's why they were holding this peace rally. And when the final speaker was speaking, this blast took place in one corner. So it's not very clear they were targeting the police officers or the police station or the peace rally or anti-militant rally. So among those dead were several civilians. And in fact, that is exactly the concern of the local people, because this is a well-known tourist area. The speakers were talking about, we want to give education to our kids, we want to live a normal life and do our business.
And they were criticising the government for not taking enough action.
And why is this militant group increasing its attacks right now?
for the past year or so on various targets. And the intensity of the attacks have increased. In fact, in the last few months, both sides have been using drones. And this also led to tensions between Islamabad and the Afghan Taliban.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:55
2
What happened in the Swat Valley suicide bombing and who claimed responsibility?
1:55–4:00
3
How does the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan operate and why are attacks increasing now?
4:00–7:29
4
What are the local impacts of renewed militant attacks on Swat’s civilians and tourism?
7:29–12:39
5
What new negotiations did President Trump announce about the Strait of Hormuz?
12:39–32:14