Scores of suspects have been arrested from different cities in a pre-dawn crackdown, a government official speaking anonymously told AFP. Security officials said at least 18 terrorists had been killed in Sindh province overnight, and 13 more in the country’s northwest. The Sunni jihadist IS group has targeted Sufi shrines in Pakistan previously, killing more than 50 at a shrine in Balochistan province last year. Pakistan has seen a dramatic improvement in security recently, but the apparently coordinated series of attacks this week — most claimed by the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban — has shaken the increasing confidence. Analyst Amir Rana predicted the “intense” wave of TTP attacks would continue, saying security forces had failed to crack their operational infrastructure, especially in cities.

Source: Dhaka Tribune February 17, 2017 09:19 UTC