At least two killed, 14 injured in Quetta blast

Two FC personnel also among injured as blast occurred near vehicle of the security forces

QUETTA:

At least two men have been killed and over a dozen injured – including two soldiers of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) – in a blast in Quetta on Tuesday.

It is immediately not clear what caused the blast which took place near a vehicle of the security forces on McCaughey Road in the provincial capital of Balochistan.

The casualties have been rushed to hospital where some of the injured are said to be in a critical condition.

One of the dead has been identified as Akram Khan.

Law enforcers have cordoned off the area as investigators search for forensic evidence. The cause and nature of the blast have yet to be determined.

Home Minister Ziaullah Langove has condemned the blast saying that “anti-state elements are trying to sabotage the law and order in the country.”

The blast took place three days after Chief Minister Jam Kamal claimed that security challenges in Balochistan have declined as the law enforcement agencies have defeated the elements stoking terrorism across the province.

“People of the province and security forces have rendered immense sacrifices in the war against terrorism and defeated the hostile forces using Pakistan’s soil for international war,” he said on Friday while addressing participants of National Security Workshop in Quetta.

Balochistan has long been wrecked by ethnic, sectarian, militant and separatist violence perpetrated by a potpourri of groups. Pakistani officials have repeatedly blamed “hostile forces” for violence in the province.