13 injured as roadside bomb hits police escorting a judge in Quetta
The roadside blast a hit police vehicle escorting the judge of Federal Shariat Court.
QUETTA (Web Desk/ AP) – A powerful explosion took place near Al-Khair Hospital on Zarghoon Road in Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province.
Security officials said a roadside bomb exploded near a police vehicle escorting a judge of the Federal Shariat Court, injuring thirteen people.
Sarfraz Bugti, the head of the interior ministry in southwestern Balochistan province, said the judge was unharmed in the explosion.
Police spokesman Shahzada Farhat said four police officers and passers-by were wounded.
Security officials inspect the site of a roadside bomb blast in Quetta (AFP PHOTO)
The injured persons have been shifted to nearby hospital where one of them is said to be in critical condition.
Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has long been plagued by insurgency.
WATCH CCTV FOOTAGE OF THE INCIDENT:
The incident comes three days after militants struck at the heart of the country’s legal profession, killing a prominent attorney and then bombing the civil hospital in Quetta where dozens of other lawyers had gathered to mourn. The twin attacks killed at least 70 people, most of them lawyers.
A breakaway faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in Quetta.
In a statement, Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group, said its militants killed Bilal Kasi, the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, then as dozens of lawyers gathered at the government-run Civil Hospital, a suicide bomber targeted the mourners.
Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired meeting to review the internal security situation and review implementation of National Action Plan on terrorism.
The meeting discussed at length the internal security situation of the country and different aspects of the National Action Plan. Minster for Interior Ch, Nisar and National security Advisor Lt Gen R. Nasir Khan Janjua briefed the premier on how terrorist organizations are attacking soft targets.
The meeting observed that after achieving successful results from operation Zarb-e-Azb in FATA, terrorists are now changing their targets other than the state institutions out of desperation.
The Prime Minister said that we are in a state of war with an ideology that wants to change our way of life.
He said the government is committed to take all necessary steps to ensure that blood spilled in Quetta carnage does not go waste.
