QUETTA – Three people, including a woman, were wounded in a car bomb blast in the provincial capital on Tuesday. Police officials said unidentified persons parked an explosives-laden Suzuki car in front of the office Mahak, an NGO, on New Al-Gilani Road in the centre of Quetta which was exploded with a remote-controlled device early in the morning. As a result, one woman identified as Bakht Bibi and two security guards, Rafiuddin and Syed Masood, received wounds and were rushed to a hospital where their condition is stated to be out of danger.
The blast badly damaged the office, at least five nearby houses and some vehicles parked at the site. The police say explosives weighing 15 to 18kg was used in the bombing as result of which the car was blown into pieces and only a tyre along and engine were found from the spot. The blast was so powerful that it created a one and half feet crater on the road and blew the gate of the NGO office into pieces. The concrete wall of a house also collapsed while cracks appeared in the bungalows. The windowpanes and others structures also shattered.
A local, Zakir Baloch, told this ascribe that he was about to take his children to school when loud explosion shook his house and he saw the breakage of windowpanes. The blast also damaged electricity cables and telephone lines after which power supply and phones service were suspended in the locality. Talking to media, Capital City Police Officer Dawood Ahmed Junejo after examining the blast site said it would be pre-mature to comment about the target of the blast, however, investigation was underway to unearth real motive behind incident.
Another police officer Zaman Tareen said apparently one could say that the target of the blast was NGO office. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.
And in Jaffarabad, two people were injured in a landmine blast. Sources said Ghulam Nabi and Abdul Hadi were on their way in RD 238 area when one of them stepped on a landmine. Resultantly, both sustained serious wounds and were rushed to the nearby hospital for treatment.
