QUETTA: Three security personnel and two civilians were injured in a suicide attack near the cantonment area in Zhob town on Friday. The condition of two of the injured is said to be serious.

Official sources said that when a man driving an explosives-laden car tried to enter the cantonment he was stopped by army personnel at a checkpost on the gate. When the vehicle was being searched the man detonated an explosive device.

A security official claimed that the man wanted to blow himself up inside the cantonment in an area where army officers lived.

He said the powerful blast was heard all over the town.

The injured, a child among them, were taken to a military hospital in Zhob.

After the attack, security personnel searched the area to collect evidence. Bomb squad personnel checked the remains of the bomber’s car and confirmed that it was packed with explosives.

Parts of the attacker’s body were found.

Police said the identity of the bomber was yet to be ascertained.

After the attack security was tightened in the town and additional security personnel were deployed at important locations.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri condemned the attack and praised the army personnel posted at the checkpost who foiled the attacker’s plan to explode the device inside the cantonment.

AP adds: Shortly after the attack, Azam Tariq, a spokesman for a breakaway faction of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakis­tan, claimed responsibility of the attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2016