Karachi: A powerful bomb exploded near a police vehicle in a busy marketplace in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province Monday, killing at least four people and injuring 15 others, police said.
The incident occurred near a parked police vehicle next to Qandhari Bazar on Shahrah-e-Iqbal in Quetta, the Dawn newspaper reported.
According to SSP Operations Captain (retd) Zohaib Mohsin, the target of the blast was a police vehicle.
The explosives were planted in a motorcycle,“ he said, adding that the injured also included women and children.
Four persons, including two policemen, were killed in the explosion. At least 15 people were also injured in the blast which left several cars and motorcycles in the vicinity damaged.
Mohsin said the injured were immediately transferred to Civil Hospital Quetta for medical treatment.
“According to initial information, three to four kilos of explosives were used in the blast,” the police official said.
“Due to the blast, two vehicles, including a police van, were damaged.”
TV footage showed a damaged vehicle of the police surrounded by a number of police personnel.
Several ambulances were also seen leaving the site of the explosion.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the blast in Balochistan’s capital city with prayers for those killed and offered condolences to their families.
Resource-rich Balochistan in southwestern Pakistan borders Afghanistan and Iran, But it is also Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.
Baloch nationalists are active in the Balochistan province and often target the security forces and people from other provinces, especially Punjab.
PTI