QUETTA: Two people were killed and 20 others, including two children and three policemen, injured when two bombs exploded during pro-Kashmir rallies in Quetta and Sibi on Friday.

Officials said a Kashmir Solidarity Day rally, led by former MNA Sardar Kamal Khan Bangulzai and tribal and religious leaders, had come to Quetta from Mastung and was on its way to Quetta Press Club for holding a demonstration there against illegal Indian occupation of Kashmir after marching on various roads.

When the rally reached near the Deputy Commissioner’s Office on Inscumb Road, a bomb placed beneath a truck carrying sound system for the rally went off, a senior police officer said, adding that the truck and some cars were damaged in the blast.

“We received two bodies and four injured,” officials at the hospital said, adding that one person died on the spot while the other succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. The deceased were identified as Muhammad Nadeem and Muhammad Ismail, both residents of Mastung.

“An improvised explosive device (IED) was used for the blast which was planted under the truck,” the officials said, adding that a case was registered against unknown terrorists and investigation was under way.

In Sibi town, over 16 people, including three policemen and two children, were injured when a bomb exploded in the Luni Road area. Police said the target of the terrorists was a Kashmir Solidarity Day rally, but it escaped any damage as the blast took place after the rally passed the area.

Sibi District Hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr Refique Mastoi said the condition of four injured was serious and they had been shifted to the Combined Military Hospital.

Sibi’s Deputy Commissioner Yasar Bazai confirmed that more than 16 people were injured in the blast. An IED used for the blast was planted in a motorbike parked on the route of the rally.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2021