SIBI: At least 30 people were injured when a hand grenade was hurled at a Kashmir Solidarity Day rally in Sibi on Friday.
The rally was passing through Chakar Road Chungi when the hand grenade was thrown on it. However, the grenade missed its target.
The explosion slightly damaged a motorcycle and nearby buildings.
The wounded were rushed to Civil Hospital in Sibi in Edhi Foundation ambulances where the deputy commissioner has sounded an emergency.
Sibi Station House Officer Wazir Khan Marri said that miscreants on a motorcycle threw a hand grenade at Luni Chowk, which resulted in injuries to 16 people.
Eleven of those injured were shifted to District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) while five to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Quetta. According to doctors, the condition of four injured, including a police constable, was serious.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The security forces have surrounded the area after the bomb attack and started a search operation for the culprits.
Hours after the first attack, at least two people were killed with another four injured in an explosion near the Deputy Commissioner (DC) office on Inscomb Road in Quetta. According to Quetta Civil Hospital Medical Superintendent Arbab Kamran, the bodies of two victims were brought to the facility, while four injured persons were brought for treatment.
Quetta DC Major (r) Major Aurangzeb Badini reported that the Quetta blast was targeted at a Kashmir Solidarity Day rally that was passing from the area, adding that the nature of the blast couldn’t be ascertained as yet.
Security forces cordoned off the area after the explosion while evidence was being collected.
Governor Amanullah Khan Yasinzai, while strongly condemning the blast, said that the nefarious motives of the terrorists will be foiled with national integrity.
He urged the law enforcement agencies to take stern action against the elements involved in the incident and directed the authorities concerned to provide all medical facilities to the injured.
On January 7, two people were killed and more than a dozen injured – including two soldiers of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) – in a blast in the provincial capital.
The blast comes two weeks after four members of the Sibi Scouts, a wing of the Frontier Corps’ North Wing, were martyred and five others were injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in Sangaan area of Sibi. Unknown miscreants had planted a landmine in the area, which went off when a vehicle carrying the security personnel ran over it.
Last month, Chief Minister Jam Kamal said that the security challenges in Balochistan were on a decline as the law enforcers had defeated the elements stoking terrorism across the province.
“People of the province and security forces have rendered immense sacrifices in the war against terrorism and defeated the hostile forces using Pakistan’s soil for international war,” he was quoted as saying while addressing the participants of a national security workshop in Quetta.
