Four killed, 19 injured in explosion on Quetta's Sariab road

QUETTA: At least four people were killed while nineteen others wounded in a blast on the provincial capital’s Sariab Road on Saturday, ARY News reported.

According to rescue sources, the blast occurred close to a vehicle of security forces on the busy Sariab Road. A number of vehicles and buildings in the vicinity were also damaged as a result of the powerful explosion.

Four people were killed while over a dozen others sustained injuries in the blast, according to a spokesperson for the Civil Hospital, Quetta.

After being informed of the blast, rescue teams and a contingent of security forces immediately reached the blast site and shifted the deceased and injured to the Civil Hospital, Quetta.

The security forces have cordoned off the site of the blast for security reasons. The cause of the explosion is yet to be ascertained.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

A day earlier, the Additional Inspector General of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, Muhammad Ashraf Noor, was martyred while seven policemen were wounded in a suicide blast in Peshawar’s Hayatabad area.

On Nov 19, Additional Inspector General (AIG) Telecommunications Hamid Shakeel Durrani and two other policemen were martyred in a suicide attack near Chaman Housing Scheme on Airport Road of the provincial capital Quetta.

Separatist militants in Baluchistan have waged a campaign against the central government for decades, demanding a greater share of the gas-rich province’s resources.

Taliban and other Islamist militants also operate in the province, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran. A U.S. drone strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour last year in Baluchistan.

The province was rocked by a series of attacks late last year that claimed over 180 lives and raised concerns about a growing militant presence, including fighters affiliated with Islamic State, which has claimed several bombings in Baluchistan.