ISLAMABAD - The country’s security has been put on high alert after the bomb blast in Quetta that was carried out by a suicide attacker, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Thursday.

“The real objective of the attack was to disrupt peace in Pakistan,” the minister said while addressing a news conference here at the Ministry of Interior. Such people are enemies of Pakistan’s development and are against the stability achieved by the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he further said.

“The interior ministry has instructed all 22 (security related) organisations working under it to put the (country’s) security on high alert (after the blast),” Sheikh Rashid said adding that the law enforcement agencies including Frontier Corp (FC), Rangers, Coastal Guards, Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts are among these organizations.

The country’s economy has taken off under the supervision of PM and our enemies are “thinking of terrorism” in big cities of the country, he said while giving a reason of issuing high alert.

On Wednesday night, a powerful bomb had gone off in the parking lot of the Serena Hotel in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, at a time when Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong was on a tour of the city.

Sheikh Rashid said that banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility of the attack but this claim has yet to be verified. He said that TTP was re-organising and conspiracies against Pakistan were being hatched from the neighbouring country. “But Pakistan Army, its great intelligence agencies and 220 million people would defeat such conspiracies,” he said and added, “Our great army and intelligence agencies are an asset of this country… who have defeated terrorism.”

The attack claimed lives of five people, besides injuring at least 11 others, the minister said, adding, that he was issuing the statement in light of the queries raised by international media. Now, six injured people are in the hospital and two or one are in critical condition, he said. “The attacker was a suicide bomber and used C4 explosives, weighing between 60 to 80 kilograms,” he said. He told reporters that the suicide attacker stayed in car which has been sent for forensic analysis. The bomber has not been identified as yet, he said. “There were intelligence reports of such an attack.”

He said attack was meant to disrupt Quetta’s present peaceful environment. “We had handed over the command of 13 security check posts to police in Quetta, and the FC were also ready to leave several others,” he added. We wanted to pull out FC from provincial capital but it is not possible now, he also said.

Condemning the incident, Sheikh Rashid said investigations would unfold perpetrators of the incident, and the provincial chief secretary had been directed to immediately look into the matter.  

He said port city Gwadar and Balochistan were important for Pakistan’s progress and termed Gwadar “future” of the country.  

Responding a question, the interior minister said that Chinese ambassador was currently present in Quetta and had been staying there for the last many days and was safe. He said that the ambassador was staying at a different place other than hotel. “There will be no chaos, Pakistan is safe,” he underscored.  

Sheikh Rashid said some people in India had created between 250,000 and 300,000 social media accounts within the last eight to 10 days. “I am not speaking about accounts opened in America and Korea and other countries,” he said. I had previously said that there were attempts to internally destabilise Pakistan by forces outside the country, he also said. “They cannot bear [to see] Pakistan growing and prospering.”  

He concluded that government departments, and ministries including Ministry of Information Technology were looking for a solution by bringing a law regarding social media. “So that Pakistan will not have to go through such threats, incidents and unrest daily,” he concluded.