On 24 October 2016, three heavily armed terrorists carried out an attack on the

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

training college in

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, killing 61 cadets and injuring more than 165 others. The

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

claimed responsibility for the attack, and Pakistan-based

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ; ur, ) or "Army of Jhangvi", is a Deobandi Sunni supremacist, terrorist and jihadist militant organisation based in Afghanistan. The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shi ...

claimed to have collaborated with them. According to Pakistani authorities, the assailants came from

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and were in contact with their handlers there while perpetrating the attack.

Attack

Three militants entered the training centre around 11:10 pm on Tuesday 24 October, while cadets were sleeping, and opened fire before taking hundreds of police cadets hostage and engaging in a standoff with security forces. At least 61 people were killed and over 165 people were injured as well. All the three gunmen were killed during the attack. Two detonated suicide belts and the third was shot by police. Many of the victims were killed when the attackers detonated their belts.

Perpetrators

Pakistan's national security advisor Naseer Khan Janjua stated to U.S. ambassador David Hale that India's Research and Analysis Wing and Afghanistan's

National Directorate of Security The National Directorate of Security (NDS; ps, د ملي امنیت لوی ریاست; prs, ریاست عمومی امنیت ملی) was the national intelligence and security service of Afghanistan. The headquarters of the NDS was in Kabul, ...

(NDS) were "patronising" terrorist organisations on attacking soft targets in Pakistan, and emphasised the need for effective action against militant elements in Afghanistan linked to the attack. Maj. Gen. Sher Afgan, the chief of the

Frontier Corps The Frontier Corps ( ur, , reporting name: FC), are a group of paramilitary forces of Pakistan, operating in the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to maintain law and order while overseeing the country's borders with Afghanist ...

in Quetta, said that a faction of

, a Pakistan-based sectarian Sunni group, was believed to have carried out the attack. Shortly afterwards,

(ISIL) claimed responsibility via its Amaq media wing. It also released the photos of the claimed attackers.Quetta attack survivor: 'We were sleeping when terrorists attacked'
CNN, 25 October 2016. Salman Masood

''The New York Times'', 25 October 2016. Kunwar Khuldune Shahid
Quetta Police College Attack: Pakistan Is Increasingly Vulnerable to Terrorism
The Diplomat, 25 October 2016. A senior security official said that the ISIL had "outsourced" the attack to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. A spokesman of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi faction ''Al-Alami'' subsequently told

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

that the two groups (''Al-Alami'' and ISIL) had "done this attack together".LeJ 'collaborated with ISIS' for Quetta attack
''The Nation'', 26 October 2016. Analysts said that the ISIL clearly has a presence in Pakistan and has local groups working with it.

Aftermath

Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pak ...

cancelled all of his engagements and called a meeting with arms officials in Quetta. Pakistan's national security advisor Naseer Khan Janjua stated to U.S. ambassador David Hale that India's Research and Analysis Wing and Afghanistan's

Sanaullah Zehri Sardar Sanaullah Khan Zehri ( ur, ) is a Pakistani politician who had been the Chief Minister of Balochistan from 24 December 2015, to 9 December 2017. He belongs to Channal Zarakzai family and also the ''Sardar'' of the Zehri tribe and chief ...

revealed on 10 November 2016 the arrest of mastermind and facilitator of the attack.

Reactions

International

The

Chinese Foreign Ministry The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China () is the first-ranked executive department of the State Council of the Chinese government, responsible for the foreign relations of the People's Republic of China. It is led ...

, French Foreign Minister

Jean-Marc Ayrault Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...

, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affair, German Minister of Foreign Affairs

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician serving as President of Germany since 19 March 2017. He was previously Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as Vice Chan ...

, Indian Defence Minister

Manohar Parrikar Manohar Parrikar (born Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar; 13 December 1955 – 17 March 2019) was an Indian politician and leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party who served as Chief Minister of Goa from 14 March 2017 until his death. Previous ...

, Russia President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

, British Foreign Secretary

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

, United States State Department Spokesperson John Kirby all condemned the attack and expressed their solidarity with Pakistan. The United Nations and the European Union condemned the terrorist attack, and pledged to "work closely together with Pakistan to fight the global threat of terrorism and expressed condolences to the families of the victims."

Attack

Perpetrators

Aftermath

Reactions

International

See also

References

Further reading