Islamabad:
Five people were killed and five others were injured on Wednesday in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in the Khuzdar district of the province of Balochistan of Pakistan on Wednesday.
Naal Police Station House Officer (SHO) Bahawal Khan Pindrani said that the explosion took place after a motorcycle had exploded by a remote device.
“The explosion took place on Naal Market and the wounded were moved to the hospital,” he said.
District health officer Rafiq Sasoli said that the condition of two of the wounded was serious and that they had received five bodies in the mortuary.
Khan said that the bomb removal team was present on the spot and the site inspected.
Khuzdar Senior Superintendent of Police Javed Zehri told a television channel that the explosion took place near a university in the vicinity of the market and also burnt vehicles.
He said that the timely action of safety forces prevented a new terror attack in the Pishin area of Balochistan.
“Trading intelligence, four terrorists were arrested in Pishin, while they planted a terror attack on Wednesday,” he added.
Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti strongly condemned the explosion in a statement, and added that orders were issued to offer the wounded with the best medical care available.
“Terrorism will be eradicated in all its forms,” said Bugti. “Elements hostile to peace will fail in their nasty objectives and those involved in this incident will be brought to court.” Balochistan has been defying for more than two decades of violence. On January 26, two people were killed and seven others were injured in an explosion of a car bomb close to a passenger bus that drove from Khuzdar to Rawalpindi.
The think tank, which is located in Islamabad, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, has said that the country already saw 79 terrorist attacks last month, which resulted in the death of 55 citizens and 47 security personnel, while 45 citizens and 81 security staff were injured.
It said during terrorism control operations, 156 terrorists were killed, 20 injured and another 60 arrested.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)