Balochistan insurgency: Section 144 imposed after bomb attack in Quetta

Police suspected the target could have been shops owned by Shias.

QUETTA:

The Balochistan government imposed Section 144 across the province after one person was killed and 10 injured on Monday in a bomb attack near the Government Degree College on Saryab Road in Quetta.

According to the provincial home department, the government has decided to place a ban on pillion raiding, protest rallies or unauthorised gathering of people due to an increase in the number of bomb blasts and target killings.

Meanwhile, most of the injured were shopkeepers hailing from the Shia community. Three of those injured are said to be in critical condition.

The injured were taken to Provincial Sandeman Hospital for treatment, where one of the injured succumbed to his wounds.

According to a senior police official, around 25 to 30 kilogrammes of explosives were packed in a car parked in front of the shops near the college. According to sources, the car had been parked on Saryab Road an hour before the blast.

A case has been registered at the Saryab police station while no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2011.