QUETTA: As many as 12 persons, including two policemen, were injured in an explosion near a police mobile van on Eastern Bypass in the provincial metropolis, the police said Wednesday.
According to the police, the bomb disposal squad was called to the scene and nature of the blast was being determined.
The rescue officials found the wreckage of a motorcycle near the blast site while the police initially claimed that explosive material was planted in the motorcycle.
The rescuers shifted the injured to Civil Sandeman Hospital, said the police.
The blast comes two days after a “remote-controlled bomb explosion” targeted a police van escorting the convoy of foreign diplomats heading to Malam Jabba in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat district on Sunday.
According to the police, the attack targeted a group of 11 foreign diplomats, resulting in one officer losing his life and four others being injured. All the envoys were safe after the explosion and had been shifted to Islamabad, said the police.
The nation has been reeling under rising violent attacks since the Taliban rulers returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, particularly in the bordering provinces of KP and Balochistan.
The two most vulnerable provinces saw a sharp rise in deadly attacks last month, according to data from the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).
The digital database of security incidents managed by the Islamabad-based think-tank suggested an alarming situation as the number of attacks jumped from 38 in July to 59 in August.
These incidents included 29 attacks in KP, 28 in Balochistan, and two in Punjab. Meanwhile, KP witnessed 25 casualties in the 29 terrorist attacks during August.
