Quetta, a city in the south-west with a population of 900,000, has faced persistent violence, primarily directed at the Shia Muslim minority, frequently attributed to organizations like Laskar-e-Jhangvi.

Similarly, in February, nearly 90 people perished in a bomb explosion at a marketplace located in a Hazara Shia area of the city.

[4] The attacks began with the detonation of an explosive device attached to a bus carrying students from Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University.

A short time later, a suicide bomber struck at the nearby Bolan Medical Complex, where victims of the initial bombing were being treated.

However, due to an earlier change of route, the bus carried a more ethnically mixed group and has been described as "the wrong target" of the perpetrators.