Two people were killed and seven others injured in a bomb explosion in the Killi Mangal area of Quetta on Saturday evening.
The blast – which occurred within the jurisdiction of Hanna police station – stirred up fear and panic in the administrative capital of Balochistan, the province which has been caught up in a spiral of violence for more than two decades now.
It was immediately not clear who detonated the bomb and who was their target. Emergency response teams and law enforcers rushed to the site, threw a security cordon, and ferried the casualties to hospital.
Police confirmed that they have registered the FIR, and efforts are underway to identify and apprehend the perpetrators.
The casualties were driven to the Trauma Centre at Civil Hospital Quetta, where emergency measures were put place. Medics confirmed that they have received two dead bodies and seven injured persons, who are mostly in stable condition.
A police official, while speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that while the motives behind the blast remain unclear, preliminary investigation point to the possibility of terrorist activity.
Soon after the bombing, security measures were further tightened in the provincial capital with the law enforcers launching a sweeping search operation.
The bombing took place at a time when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was in Quetta to visit the Command and Staff College, the premier military institution of Pakistan Army.
The blast came a day after heavily armed terrorists launched a coordinated assault on a bank and the residences of senior government officers in Surab district of Balochistan. “The attackers looted the bank and set fire to several official residences,” Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the provincial government, said on Friday.
Officials and witnesses stated that 20 to 30 terrorists of “Fitna al Hindustan” entered the market of Surab city on motorcycles Friday evening and targeted soft civilian areas such as banks and markets. Ordinary Baloch women and children were also attacked in the market, they added.
Spokesperson Rind also confirmed that Hidayatullah Buledi, the additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of Surab, was martyred while fighting the terrorists.