At least 59 police cadets were killed and an estimated 116 injured after a handful of militants attacked a police training center in Quetta, Pakistan on the evening of Oct. 24. Hundreds of cadets were held hostage for several hours during the attack, according to local news reports.
Five or six attackers “targeted the sentry stationed at the watch tower” at the police compound, Balochistan home minister Sarfraz Bugti said in a press conference, according to Pakistan’s International News. Three terrorists wearing suicide jackets entered the gate after killing the guard, he said, according to other news reports. Pakistan officials said one of the suicide bombers was a 12-year-old boy. Most of the fatalities occurred after one of the men detonated his vest.
The Pakistan military attributed them to the Afghanistan-backed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami, a Sunni extremist group associated with several deadly attacks in Pakistan in recent years.
The US state department condemned the attack, and said the US will “continue to work with our partners in Pakistan and across the region to combat the threat of terrorism.”
Separately on Oct. 24, a Pakistani intelligence officer was killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle. ISIL, also known as Daesh, claimed responsibility for that attack in a statement.
