afghanistan, to essentially remove the government from power through this violent insurgency. it is not going to happen in pakistan, the pakistani taliban does not have the capacity. instead it is simply trying to weaken the state in pakistan by carrying out these attacks, mainly on security forces, soldiers and police, but also on civilians as well. the other major threat is an islamic state courtesan. that is a group that was likely behind this attack. it is a rival of the taliban. and the party that was attacked today, many of its leaders have expressed support for the taliban so i would imagine it is a strong likelihood that they wanted to attack this political party in great part because of the public support that this gui f party have expressed for the taliban. this group that was attacked today, it is a member of the ruling coalition and the current government in pakistan
the united states told the bbc he would welcome military intervention if a peaceful solution was not reached. the bloc has also imposed a no fly zone on all commercial flights to and from niger, and closed all land borders between niger and member countries. aneliese bernard is director of strategic stabilization advisors, a washington based risk advisory group focused on west africa. she was formally with the state department in nigerfor several years. i spoke with her earlier. this military coup was not exactly precedented. that said, we need to be clear that niger itself has only had one democratic election, that being the one that got us president bazoum in the first place. so coups in general are somewhat of a familiar terrain for nigerians and for the government, for the region, for that matter. that said, ecowas s response to this
researcher at human rights watch do stay with us for that. but first, to niger, where the economic community of west african states has agreed to impose immediate financial sanctions on the leaders of the military coup there. following a meeting in neighbouring nigeria, the bloc known as ecowas gave the junta a week to hand back power, and said it wouldn t rule out the use of force. niger s ambassador to the united states told the bbc he would welcome military intervention if a peaceful solution was not reached. the bloc has also imposed a no fly zone on all commercial flights to and from the country, and closed all land borders between niger and member countries. aneliese bernard is director of strategic stabilisation advisers, a washington based risk advisory group focused on west africa. she was formally with the state department in niger. this military coup was not exactly precedented. that said, we need to be clear that
to nearby peshawar. the death toll rose quickly. police have said that they have struggled to identify all of the dead. among those named is a local political leader. pakistan s prime minister condemned the attack. there has been an increase in violent attacks across pakistan, particularly in this province. the police have said they ve discovered evidence suggesting the explosion might have been a suicide bomber but have not yet confirmed it. if this was an attack, it s not clear what the motive could be and no group has claimed it. it leaves many questions about what has happened and how it could affect the build up to pakistan s much anticipated general election, still expected later this year. caroline davies, bbc news. a little earlier i asked our south asia editor anbarasan ethirajan to tell me more about the group whose rally was targeted.
among those named is a local political leader. there has been an increase in violent attacks in pakistan, particularly in this province. police have said that they have discovered evidence suggesting that the explosion might have been a suicide bomber, but have not yet confirmed it. if this was an attack, it is not clear what the motive could be, and no group has claimed it, leaving many questions about what has happened, and how it could affect the build up to pakistan s much anticipated general election, still expected later this year. pakistan s prime minister has condemned the attack. and caroline gave me this update a short time ago. different numbers that have been associated with this explosion throughout the course of the afternoon into the evening. now, that is relatively common as the authorities are trying to understand exactly what happened. and, of course, the death toll does rise as people are taken to hospital and sometimes there s nothing further that can be done for th