QUETTA: One person was killed and 25 others were injured, 12 of them seriously, in a bomb blast at a sweet shop in Kohlu town of Balochistan on Friday.

Police said the bomb pla­nted by unidentified miscreants inside the shop in the main bazaar area went off when a large number people were there for purchasing sweets.

The shop was completely destroyed in the powerful blast. Many nearby shops and buildings were also damaged.

Soon after the explosion, police and personnel of other law enforcement agencies rushed to the site and shifted the body and the injured to the district headquarters hospital.

Police say time bomb, weighing over 2kg, was planted in a shop; nearly a dozen taken to hospital in Dera Ghazi Khan

“We have received one body and 25 injured,” Dr Asghar Marri, medical superintendent of the hospital, told Dawn, adding that the condition of at least 12 of the injured was serious.

They were shifted to Dera Ghazi Khan for treatment, as they received multiple injuries in the blast, he said. Officials said rescue teams reached the site and retri­eved some of the people from the debris of the shop.

Police rejected a perception that it was a gas cylinder blast, as initial investigation suggested it was bomb blast. “It was a time bomb, weighing over two kilograms, planted inside the sweet shop,” senior police officer Sariab Khetran confirmed when reached by telephone.

He said the bomb disposal squad personnel visited the site and collected evidence.

Balochistan Education Minister Mir Nasibullah Marri, who belongs to Kohlu district, reached the blast site and visited the hospital. He inquired after the health of the injured and asked the hospital management to provide best possible treatment to the victims.

CTD Kohlu registered a case against unidentified people and started an investigation. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Acting Governor Mir Jan Mohammad Khan Jamali, Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo, Adviser on Home and Tribal Affairs Mir Ziaullah Langove and provincial minister Noor Moha­mmad Dummar strongly condemned the blast and said the elements involved in this inhuman act would be arrested soon.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2022