Three killed in Mastung bomb blast

QUETTA: A woman and two children were killed and 21 people were wounded when a bomb ripped through a shopping centre in Mastung district, some 60 kilometres away from Quetta, on Wednesday.

“The bomb, which was planted in Owais Shopping Centre, exploded when the place was crowded with Eid shoppers,” a police official told The Express Tribune. The shopping centre was badly damaged in the explosion.

The bodies of two deceased children, identified as Rakhsana and Ali Jan, along with the injured were shifted to Nawab Ghous Baksh Memorial Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital. The woman killed in the blast has not been identified as yet.

Sources said some of the injured have been referred to hospitals in Quetta due to the critical nature of their wounds.

Mastung Deputy Commissioner Syed Mehrab Shah said a heavy contingent of law enforcement personnel cordoned off the area after the blast.

“Initial investigations suggest that the explosives were planted by a woman,” said District Police Officer Abdul Hayee.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2013.