Quetta blast death toll climbs to 65, 200 injured

The death toll in the Saturday blast in Quetta climbed to 64 hours after the bloody blast on Shia populated Hazara Town Quetta, while 200 including women and children, have been left injured following the incident. 

This is first major Shia massacre since the imposition of Governor Rule in Baluchistan province. Majlis- e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen has announced a shutter-down commercial strike on Sunday to mourn the massacre of innocent Shiites by the takfiri nasbi terrorists of outlawed Taliban/Sipah-e-Sahaba/Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
The explosion occurred near a market at the busy Kirani road area of the city, located close to Hazara Town, where a large population of the Shia Hazara’s community resides.

“At least 65 people have been martyred and at least 200 more wounded, the death toll may rise. It was a remote-controlled bomb,” said Wazir Khan Nasir, a senior police officer in Quetta. He said the dead included women and children.

“It was a sectarian attack, the Shia community was the target of the horrific blast,” said Wazir Khan Nasir. “We fear more casualties. We have announced an emergency in hospitals,” said provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani. Durrani said the bomb was planted near the pillar of a building in the market.

“The building collapsed due to the intensity of the bomb, some people have been trapped inside,” he said. Officials and witnesses said an angry mob surrounded the area after the blast and were not allowing policemen, rescue workers and reporters to reach the site.

“They were angry and started a protest, some of them pelted police with stones,” said Durrani. “Some of them were armed and were firing gunshots in the air, now they have allowed police and rescue workers to reach on spot,” he added.

The Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen has called a strike in Quetta on Sunday in protest of Saturday’s blast.

The provincial capital has become a flashpoint for sectarian linked violence, where at least 93 people were killed in a series of bombing last month. A majority of the people killed in the Alamdar Road blasts on January 10 belonged to the Shia community of Quetta.

It was Pakistan’s worst sectarian attack, claimed by the banned Taliban and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

Later that month, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf sacked the provincial government after relatives and Shia demonstrators refused to bury the blast victims for four days in protest.

The protestors demanded greater protection from the government and military.