QUETTA - At least 13 people were killed and 32 others injured in two separate incidents of bomb blast and firing in Jaffarabad and Kalat districts on Friday.
Jaffarabad Deputy Commissioner Zafar Shah Bukhari told TheNation that unidentified people had planted explosives in an auto-rickshaw parked on National Highway near a crowded old bus stop in Dera Allahyar of Jaffarabad district, some 400 kilometres southeast of Quetta.
“Explosives went off with a bang killing nine people and leaving over 30 others with serious wounds,” DC Jaffarabad confirmed, adding the blast also damaged seven shops nearby and a car. Police and rescue teams rushed to the site soon after the blast and shifted the dead and injured to District Headquarters Hospital Dera Allahyar while some of the people with critical injuries were shifted to Larkana for further treatment.
“Investigation into the bomb blast is underway to ascertain the main target of the attack,” DC Bukhari said, adding that no arrest had been made so far in this connection. Sources said the blast was so powerful that its sound was heard far away from its location. The blast destroyed several shops and left a 6-feet deep carter at the site of explosion.
Seven deceased were identified as Habibullah, Tufail Ahmed, Nazir Ahmed, Shehzad, Haji Khawind Bakhsh, Raja Bangar and Haji Khan. Officials of bomb disposal squad said that 20 to 25 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast which was carried out through a time device.
Governor Balochistan Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi and Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani have strongly condemned the explosion and expressed their deep sorrow over the death of innocent people.
CM Balochistan has directed authorities to immediately arrest the culprits behind the blast and sought a report into the incident from authorities concerned.
In another incident, four people were gunned down in main RCD Highway area of Kalat district, some 160 kilometers away from Quetta. Inspector Kalat Police Station, Muhammad Ishaq, told this scribe that a vehicle carrying four personnel of Solar Energy Works was stopped by armed men at a local patrol pump in Mugalzai area of Kalat. They opened indiscriminate fire on passengers and killed them on the spot while two passers-by were also injured in the firing, he added.
Police, after the incident, reached the crime scene and shifted dead and injured to the district headquarters hospital for treatment. The deceased were identified as Irfan Rasool of Jhang, Muhammad Hayat of Raheem Yar Khan, Ghulam Ali of Liyari Karachi while the identity of fourth deceased is yet to be ascertained.
The injured passers-by were identified as Saeed Ahmed and Bashir Ahmed, both residents of Kalat.
Another police official, Muhammad Arif, said deceased had come from Karachi last night and preferred to stay with Agha Irfan Kareem. In the morning they were heading towards Dasht-e-Gohran area of Kalat when four masked men sprayed bullets on them with sophisticated weapons.
Police have registered two separate cases of both incidents and further investigations are underway.