QUETTA: Three people were killed and 13 others injured as a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in front of the Levies Lines in Chaman area on Tuesday evening.

“It was an improvised explosive device attached to a motorcycle which targeted a police vehicle carrying the SHO of Saddar police station,” said Qila Abdullah’s deputy commissioner by phone.

He said that the bomb was detonated using a remote control device when police vehicles reached near the Levies Lines.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The explosion left three people, including a six-year-old boy, dead on the spot and 13 other people, including a policeman and some Levies personnel, injured.

Soon after the blast, members of the Levies Force, Frontier Corps and police reached the place, cordoned off the area and took bodies and the injured to Chaman district hospital.

“We have referred nine injured people to the Trauma Centre of Quetta Civil Hospital due to their serious condition,” a police officer said, adding that the Station House Officer who was traveling in the targeted vehicle remained unhurt in the blast.

Two of the deceased were identified as Abdullah and Muhammad Altaf. The body of the six-year-old boy could not be identified till late in the night.

The powerful blast damaged several shops of the area besides smashing windowpanes of nearby buildings.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2021