Cycle blast in Quetta injures 13

Explosives planted on a cycle were detonated near a hotel on Samungli road.

QUETTA: At least 13 people, including two children and a woman, were wounded when a cycle outfitted with explosives detonated outside a restaurant on Samungali Road in Punj Fitti area of Quetta late on Saturday night.

According to police, the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was fitted to a cycle and parked outside the Khilji Mutton restaurant.

Rescue workers, police and security forces rushed to the spot soon after the blast.

“An infant, a three-year-old boy and a woman are among the injured,” a police official said. Two injured are said to be in critical condition. The injured were shifted to Jinnah and the state-run Sandeman Hospital for treatment.

The blast shattered window panes of the restaurant and nearby shops which is packed with people on Saturday nights. Windscreens of some vehicles were also shattered.

An official of the Bomb Disposal Squad said that between four and five kilograms of explosives were used in the blast.

There have been no immediate claims of responsibility for the bombing.

Last month, militants were foiled in a raid on two airbases located in the same vicinity. As many as 12 militants were gunned down in an 11-hour long gunfight with security forces when they tried to infiltrate the Samungli and Khalid airbases.