The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), said it was behind the suicide attack on the Frontier Corps (FC) Headquarters in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, on Wednesday.
In a statement from its media wing, Umar Media, the group said the attack was done by its Al Farooq Brigade. According to them, six attackers took part: one drove an explosive-filled vehicle into the compound, while five others entered with guns and bombs. The fighting went on for more than two hours.
The TTP called the attack “Ghazwa Quetta” and said it was revenge for recent Pakistani military drone strikes in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which they claimed hit civilians. They said they used 350 kilograms of explosives and that 40 security officers were killed.
Pakistani officials, however, confirmed 10 deaths, including civilians and said at least 30 people were injured.
Journalist Kiyya Baloch, based in Norway, wrote on X that the attack showed how “timing and location now matter more for militants than casualties,” saying Quetta was chosen for its political and symbolic value.
The attack happened just days after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he met US President Donald Trump and tried to show Pakistan as a stabilising power in the region. Experts said the attack may have been meant to damage that message.
Quetta, being the capital of Balochistan, is home to important government and military offices. By carrying out such an attack there, the militants showed they could still launch complex operations in a heavily guarded city, not only in remote areas.
After the attack, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said it had killed 18 TTP fighters in two separate raids in Sherani and Quetta. But the TTP denied this, saying those men had already been in military custody.
