[Current Affairs] August 11,2020 Top Pakistan Current Affairs for PPSC Test Preparation

What’s going on? Al Jazeera reported that six people were killed and 10 wounded during an explosion in Chaman, Balochistan. However, Dawn News is reporting that at least five people were killed and 20 wounded. The blast took place at a busy market in Chaman, which shares a border with Afghanistan’s Kandahar province.

The details: An improvised bomb planted in a motorcycle went off. The blast reportedly targeted an anti-drug unit (i.e. personnel who combat narcotics smuggling). Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan condemned the bombing. As of right now, no one has claimed responsibility for the blast (P.S. that might change by the time this newsletter lands in your inbox).

The context: The attack took place more than a week after Pakistani troops opened fire at a rally in the same town. Pashtun laborers demanded the reopening of a border crossing near Chaman that leads into Afghanistan. The crossing has been closed since March to prevent the spread of COVID-19. As a result, Pashtun residents can’t cross into Afghanistan to work as day laborers. Security forces killed at least three people and wounded 13. After this firing incident at the rally, Pakistani and Afghan troops in the area exchanged fire. Both sides accused each other of starting it. Overall, the province has witnessed a surge of violence in the past few months.

• On May 19, at least seven soldiers were killed in two separate attacks.
• On July 14, unidentified gunmen fired at a security forces’ convoy and killed eight soldiers.
• ​No group claimed responsibility for the May or July attacks. However, Pakistani forces have been fighting an ethnic Baloch armed separatist movement for more than a decade. Seperatist groups are demanding independence for Balochistan’s ethnically Baloch areas. Rights activists claim that people who support seperatist politics are often subjected to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

The bottom line: It’s unclear if the Pashtun rally firing and cross-border firing incidents are related to the Chaman bombing that took place yesterday. However, one thing is for sure – there is generally a lot of unrest in Balochistan.

MARKET RECAP

The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 39,914.76 after dropping 114.93 points as of August 10, 2020.