QUETTA: At least three people were killed and 13 others sustained injuries in the wake of a powerful blast in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, police said on Saturday.
An improvised explosive device (IED) targeted traffic police near the Deputy Commissioner Complex in Pishin, a city located some 55 kilometers from the provincial capital of Quetta, according to police officials.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
“An IED fitted inside a motorbike targeted the traffic police soldiers standing at the Surkhab Chowk near Deputy Commissioner Complex on Saturday morning,” Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Kakar, in-charge of the Pishin police station, told Arab News. “Two children were killed and 14 others, including two policemen, were injured in the attack.”
Wakeel Sherani, medical superintendent at the Pishin district headquarters hospital, confirmed receiving bodies of a boy and a girl, and said five of the injured, including a woman and two policemen, were referred to Quetta for better medical care.
In this handout photo, taken and shared with Arab News by Balochistan Police, people gather at the site of a bomb blast near the Deputy Commissioner Complex in Pishin on August 24, 2024. (Handout/AN)
However, the injured woman died during treatment at Civil Hospital in Quetta, according to Dr. Ishaq Panezai, medical superintendent of Civil Hospital.
“A 25-year-old woman succumbed to injuries while being treated in the Trauma Center,” he told Arab News. “Four other critically injured persons are undergoing surgeries.”
Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has been the site of a low-level separatist insurgency for the last two decades. The ethnic Baloch insurgents say they are fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s mineral wealth by the federation. The Pakistani government says it is working for the uplift of the impoverished province.
Injured victims of roadside bomb blast in the southwestern Pakistani town Pashin, are treated at a hospital in Quetta on August 24, 2024. (AP)
The province has also witnessed some deadliest attacks by religiously motivated groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has claimed a number of attacks in Pishin and nearby areas in the past, and Daesh (Islamic State).
Shahid Rind, a provincial government spokesman, condemned the attack and directed health officials to ensure best treatment of the injured persons.
“Terrorists have been targeting innocent citizens of Pakistan to achieve their vicious agenda,” he said in a statement. “Enemies of the state will not be spared.”
