Balochistan: At least five individuals, including three school-going children and a policeman, died in the Mastung district of Balochistan in a targeted blast on Friday morning, reported Dawn.
The blast occurred near Civil Hospital; Chowk was targeting a police mobile van; more than a dozen people, including many children, were injured.
The blast happened near the Girls High School in Mastung, which led to the destruction of structures in the region. Speaking to AFP, District Police Officer (DPO) Miandad Umrani said that in the blast five people had lost their lives, including a policeman and three schoolchildren. He said the blast also affected twelve other people, three of which were police officers.
Preliminary investigations show that a motorcycle had the explosives concealed and were exploded by a trip wire as the police van came aghast. DPO Umrani said the blast happened close to a police van at a location called Civil Hospital Chowk while the explosion ripped through the police vehicle and several autorickshaws.
Footage from the scene turned out awful; it shone a charred police van surrounded by debris and others, with emergency responders and local residents running to attend to the injured and put down the security. Some eyewitnesses stated that they saw lots of smoke and broken cars closely associated with the place.
Most of the injured were school-going children who were evacuated and rushed to Civil Hospital Mastung. Officers who responded to the scene said that the deceased children ranged in age from five to thirteen years. For the safety of patients with severe injuries, the provincial health department of Balochistan announced the emergency situation in all Quetta Health Care facilities, Civil Hospital, BMC Hospital, and the Trauma Centre.
This terrible occurrence has once again brought out security issues in the region, and the authorities have begun a crackdown in order to arrest the perpetrators of the heinous act.
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