Blast in Quetta near police van wounds nine

Author: Agencies

QUETTA : A blast targeted a police van here on Monday, wounding nine people including three policemen, said police.

According to police, the explosives were planted in a motorcycle parked on the roadside and were detonated when the police vehicle passed by on the Quetta’s Spinny road.

TV footage showed the blast left the police mobile partially damaged while at least one car parked nearby was completely damaged.

The injured were shifted to Quetta Civil Hospital’s trauma centre, where an emergency was imposed. Police and Frontier Corps personnel rushed to the site as an investigation into the incident went underway.

Balochistan’s provincial capital is witnessing a series of blasts targeting police vehicles, as this is the third incident of such nature to take place within a short time period.

Last week, at least one person died in an explosion at the city’s Double Road. Officials said that 10 others were injured in the same blast. On Sept 26, at least three policemen were injured in a blast in Eastern Bypass area of Quetta. According to security officials, unknown miscreants attempted to target a police-patrolling vehicle near Eastern Bypass that left three security men wounded.

Apart from attacks targeting police vehicles, on Sept 28, a blast on Chaman’s Taj Road killed three people, including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl leader Maulana Mohammad Hanif.

According to police, the blast took place in front of the JUI-F leader’s office, wounding 17 others. Police said that the JUI-F leader succumbed to his injuries when he was being shifted to Quetta.

Earlier this month, opposition lawmakers in the Balochistan Assembly had demanded setting up of a fact-finding committee to probe increasing terrorist attacks in the province.