A suspected suicide bomber, aged between 20-25 years, was killed in a blast in Kuchlak, 15 kilometres from Quetta, on Tuesday. According to police, the suspected suicide bomber boarded a taxi from Kuchlak and headed towards Chaman. Taxi driver Shariffudin told police that he had requested the Afghan to get down so that he could adjust some lady passengers in the vehicle. The Afghan got off and detonated his explosive-laden jacket. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) (Operations) Hamid Shakeel said that it could not be established whether he was a suicide bomber or just a carrier. The target of the attack could not be ascertained either.
The bomb disposal squad said that there were almost 2-2.5 kilogrammes of explosives attached to the jacket. The police took the suspect’s body into custody and shifted it to a hospital. A cell phone was also recovered by the police from the site of the blast. According to sources, the taxi driver has also been arrested and further investigations into the incident are underway. In another incident, a teacher at the University of Balochistan was killed in targeted killing on Tuesday. According to police, Danish Ali, a 32-year-old Computer Sciences lecturer, was on his way from his residence in Nawa-e-Killi to the varsity when two unidentified men attacked him in Zarghoon area. He received several bullet injuries and died before he could reach the hospital. The assailants managed to flee from the scene. The police shifted the body to the Civil Hospital Quetta for autopsy and later to an Imambargah at Allamdar Road. No group has claimed responsibility of the incident yet. According to police, the incident could be a case of sectarian targeted killing. Danish Ali is fifth teacher of the University of Balochistan to have been killed during the past few years. The Balochistan University administration has announced to close down the varsity on Wednesday in mourning.
