3 killed, 20 injured in two bomb blasts in Pakistan's Balochistan province

Karachi: At least three people, including a policeman, were killed and 20 others injured in two separate bomb blasts in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, police said on Tuesday.

In the first incident, a policeman was killed and 15 others were injured when a blast occurred at a mosque in the Kuchlak area of the province's Quetta district on Monday.

"People were offering Maghrib prayers when the explosion took place at the mosque," a police official said.

In another incident, two people were killed and five others were injured in a bomb blast in a marketplace near Umar Farooq Chowk in Khuzdar town on Monday.

A senior police official said the blast took place when there was a crowd, including women and children in the market for Eid shopping.

“Two people have been killed and five others injured in the explosion,” the senior officer said, adding that police and other law enforcement forces rushed to the explosion site and shifted the bodies and injured to Khuzdar Teaching Hospital.

Bomb Disposal Squad officials were busy investigating both sites and initial reports suggested both blasts were committed through improvised explosive devices (IED) planted motorbikes and parked near the Umar Farooq Chowk and the mosque.

“It seems, the motorbike IEDs were detonated with a remote control,” the official said.

No banned outfit has claimed responsibility for the blasts so far, but in the recent weeks this year, there has been a surge in terror attacks by banned outfits and terrorists in the province in which security forces and installations have also been brazenly targeted.

The banned Balochistan Liberation Army has laid claim to having carried out three major terror strikes in the province in recent weeks in Mach town, Gwadar port and a naval base in Turbat in which security forces killed some 17 militants.