QUETTA, May 23: At least 12 policemen and the driver of their official van were killed and 30 people were injured when a powerful bomb exploded near the Eastern Bypass here on Thursday. The bomb placed in a rickshaw destroyed the police van.

“The police personnel were going to the Balochistan Secretariat for security duty,” Deputy Inspector General (Operations) Fayyaz Ahmed Sumbal said.

According to sources, the van of the civil secretariat was carrying over 20 personnel of the Rapid Response Force of Balochistan Constabulary from Qasim Lines.

Frontier Corps and police personnel took the bodies and the injured to the Civil Hospital and the CMH.

The sources said 16 injured policemen and 14 civilians had been admitted to the hospitals.

Police said the bomb placed in the rickshaw parked on the roadside was detonated by remote control.

The blast also damaged a number of other vehicles and adjoining houses and shops.

DIG Sumbal said three of the injured policemen were in a critical condition.

Bomb disposal squad personnel collected evidence from the place. They said that around 100kgs of high explosives had been used.

The blast was heard all over Quetta.

It was the second big attack on police in the city in 10 days. Last week, a mini-truck loaded with explosives and rockets exploded near the official residence of Balochistan police chief Mushtaq Sukhaira. His house was badly damaged and eight policemen and civilians were killed and 98 injured. Mr Sukhaira visited the site of Thursday’s attack and attended the funeral prayers of the deceased policemen.

Bodies were later sent to their native towns.

Reuters adds: The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility of the attack.

“The target were local police. The Balochistan police recently arrested and killed some of our colleagues belonging to the Swat Taliban,” the militant group’s spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said.

About the incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s call for talks with the Taliban, he said: “We are waiting for him to form his government and see what type of policies towards us he formulates.”