QUETTA: Death toll in Thursday night’s explosion in Qila Saifullah has increased to six as officials have found four more bodies in the debris of the house which was destroyed in the powerful explosion.

Official sources said on Friday that the blast took place in the house of 71-year-old cleric Maulvi Abdul Jogezai.

He was the first victim of the blast whose body was recovered from the destroyed house on Thursday night, followed by the recovery of another body. All the victims belonged to the same family.

“The blast took place when the victims were unloading firewood from a tractor-trolley parked in the courtyard of the house,” Balochistan Home Secretary Ghulam Ali Baloch told Dawn.

“It seems that explosives placed under the firewood went off,” he added.

An official of Qila Saifullah district administration said that most of the bodies were found in pieces, adding that they were shifted to the District Hospital for identification.

Personnel of the bomb disposal squad (BDS) visited the blast site and collected evidence that suggested that the explosion took place inside the house. “Around 1,200kg explosives went off while the victims were unloading firewood from the tractor trolley. The explosives had been placed under firewood,” a BDS official said.

Several houses in the area were damaged in the bazaar of Qila Saifullah due to the impact of the powerful blast, he said.

The deceased included Maulvi Habibullah, 38, Naqibullah, 36, Rahmatullah, 30, and Asmatullah, 26. However, a child, whose body was also recovered from the house, could not be identified so far.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2018