Unrest in Balochistan: Rocket blitz sparks panic in Quetta

Rockets detonated away from populated centers, causing little damage.

QUETTA: Blind rocket attacks created panic in the provincial capital on Saturday evening, a day after a blast claimed the lives of 16 in Quetta. However, all three rockets landed and exploded in desolate places, causing no casualties, police said.

The rockets were fired from a mountainous area and landed near the Sabzal Road, Killi Deba and Spinny Road. Police and law enforcement agencies reached the site soon after the explosion and cordoned it off.

“Rockets were fired from an unspecified location, presumably the surrounding mountain area of Quetta,” an official said, adding that investigations are underway. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Death toll from Friday’s blast rises to 16

The death toll from the Arbab Kram Khan Road blast in Quetta has risen to 16, with 35 persons injured, police said on Saturday.

The police recovered at least six hand grenades on the rooftop of a house near the explosion site. It was reported on Friday that at least 13 people, among them women and children, were killed in the powerful explosion near the residence of a local politician in Quetta.

“A car packed with around 50 kilogrammes of explosives detonated in front of the house of Shafiq Mengal, the son of a former federal minister Naseer Mengal, on the Abab Karam Road,” Deputy Inspector General of Police Nazir Kurd told reporters.

The banned tribal militant group, Baloch Liberation Army, reportedly claimed responsibility, for what it called the first suicide attack by the outfit.

However, DIG Kurd told the reporters that it would be premature to declare the attack as a suicide hit.

“Initial investigations suggest that attackers parked the explosives-laden vehicle near the residence of Shafique Mengal and fled the scene,” he said, adding that some eyewitnessess have claimed that the attacker was in the vehicle when he rammed it into the house.

The police have constituted two teams to probe the blast, which left a 4-foot deep crater at the explosion site.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2012.