QUETTA, Oct 27 A police van was blown up in Sariab area here on Wednesday, leaving a constable and a passerby dead and 11 people injured.

Sources in Edhi Foundation, however, reported three deaths. Five of the injured are reported to be in serious condition.

A senior police officer told Dawn that the police van was on a routine patrol when the bomb placed near the Munir Mengal chowk exploded.

The home-made device with about 3kgs of explosives was detonated by remote control when the police van was passing through the area.

Soon after the blast security personnel rushed to the area and took the injured to the civil hospital and Bolan Medical College Hospital.

The deceased were identified as constable Sadaqat Ali and Noor Ahmed who lived in an area along the Arbab Karam Khan road.

According to hospital sources, five of the injured were policemen.

The injured constables were identified as Liaquat Ali, Mohammad Jabbar, Wazir Ahmed, Abdul Manan and Asif and the others as Ashiq, Khuda Bakhsh, Naik Mohammad, Mohammad Rasool, Azam and Mohammad Rahim.

A team of senior police officers has been constituted to investigate the blast.

The defunct Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the bombing.