QUETTA: At least 27 people were injured in an explosion in Quetta’s populated Liaquat Bazaar area on Wednesday night, officials said.

A senior police officer said the explosion was carried out through a planted device outside a shop on Prince Road.

“Explosives were planted in a motorcycle,” Razzaq Cheema, the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta told Dawn.com.

He said common citizens were targeted in the blast as the bazaar was at its busiest when the bomb went off. “All the victims are civilians,” CCPO Cheema added.

The condition of some of the injured was stated to be serious. “Five injured are serious,” Dr Rasheed Jamali, a senior doctor at Civil Hospital told Dawn.com.

An emergency was imposed at the hospital to treat the injured of the incident. Senior doctors were called in by the administration to ensure timely treatment to the injured.

The powerful blast was heard far and wide and spread fear among local residents and business owners. Several nearby shops caught fire after the explosion that also damaged vehicles and buildings in close proximity.

Traffic on Prince Road, Liaquat Bazar and Masjid road was suspended in the aftermath of the blast.

No group has so far claimed responsibility of the explosion. However, insurgency-hit Balochistan province in general and its capital Quetta has been plagued by rising by separatist and sectarian violence in recent years.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of citizens belonging to religious minority groups as well as settlers from other parts of Pakistan have left Balochistan, owing to an atmosphere of hostility and violence, which has been shaped by sectarian death squads, separatist militants, and the state.

There are numerous actors responsible for violence in the province. Amongst the most lethal are sectarian groups that have repeatedly targeted Shias — mostly Hazaras — while the small Zikri community has also found itself in their cross hairs.