QUETTA, Pakistan — Hundreds of Pakistanis rallied Sunday against an Islamic State suicide attack that targeted a politician seen as close to the Afghan Taliban.
The protesters in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern Baluchistan province, called on the government to take action to dismantle the Islamic State group affiliate, which has a growing presence in South Asia alongside the Taliban and other extremist groups.
The suicide attack on Friday, which killed 28 people, targeted Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, deputy leader of Pakistan’s Senate, who narrowly escaped the blast.
Haideri’s Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam is a pro-Taliban Islamist party that is allied with the ruling party of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, illustrating the Pakistani government’s complex ties to Islamic extremists, some of whom it views as allies in regional power struggles with Afghanistan and India.
Pakistan has long tolerated and maintained informal links to the Afghan Taliban, many of whom studied at seminaries operated by Haideri’s group.