India, Jan. 24 -- On January 20, 2022, three persons were killed and over 33 were injured in a bomb explosion near Pan Mandi in the New Anarkali Bazar area of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab. The Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA)'s spokesperson Mureed Baloch claimed that the target of the blast were the Habib Bank employees. The BNA was formed earlier this month when two separatist groups - Balochistan Republican Army and United Baloch Army - merged.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), this is the lone terrorism-linked incident of killing reported in Punjab in the current year, so far (data till January 21, 2022).

In 2021, Punjab recorded a total of 20 terrorism-linked fatalities, including...