{"id":924,"date":"2017-10-06T01:14:52","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T01:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=924"},"modified":"2017-10-06T01:48:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T01:48:13","slug":"syria-war-fighting-worst-since-battle-for-aleppo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2017\/10\/06\/syria-war-fighting-worst-since-battle-for-aleppo\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan Sufi shrine: At least 18 killed in Baluchistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">At least 18 people have been killed and 27 injured in a suicide attack on a Sufi Muslim shrine in Pakistan&#8217;s south-western province of Baluchistan.<\/p>\n<p>Crowds of devotees had gathered for a religious ceremony in Jhal Magsi, near the provincial capital Quetta.<\/p>\n<p>The bomber reportedly detonated his explosives after being stopped at the gate of the shrine by a policeman. The officer was killed.<\/p>\n<p>So-called Islamic State (IS) later said it was behind the attack.<\/p>\n<p>The IS news outlet Amaq called it &#8220;a martyrdom operation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Sufi shrines have been increasingly targeted by Islamist extremists who view Sufism as heretical.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-28635974\">Pakistan&#8217;s Sufis under attack from Islamic hard-liners<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/religion\/religions\/islam\/subdivisions\/sufism_1.shtml\">What is Sufism<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-38793330\">Will Pakistan ever stamp out extremism?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;The suicide bomber struck outside the shrine at a time when it was packed with people attending anniversary celebrations of Syed Cheesal Shah,&#8221; said local official Asad Kakar, referring to a Sufi saint.<\/p>\n<p>The police officer&#8217;s actions in stopping the bomber entering the shrine reduced the number of casualties, Baluchistan home minister Sarfraz Bugti told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Security forces have sealed off the building, Pakistani media reported.<\/p>\n<p>In February at least 80 people were killed <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-38994318\">in an attack on a shrine in Sehwan in southern Sindh province<\/a>. So-called Islamic State said it was behind that attack.<\/p>\n<p>Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam which spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the 13th Century.<\/p>\n<p>Sufis believe in saints who can intercede for them directly with God. Several million Muslims in Pakistan are believed to follow Sufism&#8217;s tenets.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/144B\/production\/_98159150_pakistanquetta976.png\" alt=\"Map locator\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least 18 people have been killed and 27 injured in a suicide attack on a Sufi Muslim shrine in Pakistan&#8217;s south-western province of Baluchistan. Crowds of devotees had gathered for a religious ceremony in Jhal Magsi, near the provincial capital Quetta. The bomber reportedly detonated his explosives after being stopped at the gate of the shrine by a policeman&#8230;. <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2017\/10\/06\/syria-war-fighting-worst-since-battle-for-aleppo\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}