One dead, 15 injured in Pindi blast

Police officials described the blast as terrorism

RAWALPINDI: One person died, while 15 others including two children sustained injuries, when explosives attached to an electricity pole in a blast in Saddar Bazaar of Rawalpindi went off on Friday, police officials and eyewitnesses said.

They said that a big fire erupted after the powerful blast that caused widespread damage at the scene. According to the police, the deceased was a vender, who used to sell vegetables near the pole, where the blast occurred.

The Counter Terror Department (CTD) and the Army personnel rushed to the scene of the blast and conducted an investigation. Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Anwarul Haq said that investigators were trying to determine the nature of the blast.



However, police described the blast as terrorism. A police spokesperson later said that the CTD and other law-enforcement agencies had collected evidence from the scene, adding that the preliminary investigation suggested that the explosives were planted on an electric pole.

Deputy Commissioner Haq told reporters at the scene that one person was killed and 15 others were injured in the blast, including two children. “Thirteen injured have been shifted to District Headquarters Hospital and two to Cantonment Hospital,” Haq added.

The deceased has been identified as Arifeen, a resident of Tench Bhatta. The injured include Abbas, Sufyan, Wali, Imran, Shamriz, Nasir, Shahid, Zeeshan, Ejaz, Hammad, Shahid Ali, Khuda Bakhsh, Hammad, Ahmad Din and Faraz.

Police and medics said that the body of the deceased would be handed over to the relatives after the autopsy. It was also stated that at least one of the injured was in critical condition. The case will be registered in the CTD police station under the anti-terrorism laws, police said.