Daily Times

Funeral prayers of Siraj Raisani and others martyred in the Mastung suicide attack were offered on Saturday, as security forces reportedly arrested two suspected facilitators of the bombing.

Suicide attack at the political rally of Siraj Raisani on Friday martyred over 125 people and injured more than 150, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.

According to reports, the suicide attacker arrived in Chaghai from Afghanistan two days back. The alleged facilitators provided residence to the suicide bomber for a brief stay.

The suicide attacker was reportedly sitting in the first row of the public gathering. Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Commander of Southern Command Lt General Asim Saleem Bajwa attended the funeral prayers of Raisani in Quetta. Later, Raisani was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Kanak, Mastung.

Meanwhile, the federal government has declared Sunday as a day of national mourning in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “In view of tragic incidents of terrorist attacks at Peshawar on July 10 and in Mastung and Bannu on July 13, 2018, the federal government has announced to observe one-day official mourning throughout the country on Sunday,” according to an official announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

It said that the national flag will fly at half mast on Sunday to mourn the deaths of nearly 150 people in the recent terrorist attacks ahead of the general elections.

Published in Daily Times, July 15^th 2018.