At least 10 people were killed, including a police officer, while over 40 sustained injuries in an explosion in Balochistan’s Mastung district on Friday — the second major blast in the district in September.
Mastung Assistant Commissioner Atta Ul Munim said that the explosion took place near the mosque where people were gathering to mark Eid Miladun Nabi — the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The AC said that the explosion — which law enforcers believe is a suicide blast — took place near Madina Mosque. He said that the people had to participate in a procession later.
Station House Officer (SHO) Javed Lehri said that the wounded are being shifted to a medical facility while an emergency has been imposed in the hospitals.
According to the district administration, Mastung’s Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nawaz Gashkori is among the deceased.
Provincial Caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai said those critically injured in the blast are being shifted to Quetta with emergency enforced across the city’s hospitals.
Achakzai said that if required, arrangements should be made for the immediate transfer of the seriously injured to Karachi. The hospitals in Karachi are being contacted on behalf of the health department, he added.
“The provincial government will bear all the expenses for the treatment of the injured,” he highlighted.
This is the second major blast that has terrorised Mastung over the last 15 days. In the previous blast on September 14, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah and several others were injured.
Mastung has remained a target of terror attacks for the past several years with a major attack in July 2018 being one of the deadliest in the district’s history during which over 200 were injured and at least 128 were killed, including Mir Siraj Khan Raisan — a provincial assembly candidate from the then-newly-formed Balochistan Awami Party (BAP).
Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, in a statement, condemned the blast and noted that the state had a zero-tolerance policy towards terrorists. __The Nation
