Quetta: A bicycle bomb killed at least five people and wounded 35 others near a police station in Pakistan’s restive southwest on Thursday, officials said.
The blast was in the centre of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, which suffers regular violence from Islamist insurgents, separatist rebels and sectarian militants.
“It was a timed device which was planted in a bicycle. Five people have been killed and 35 wounded,” Quetta police chief Abdul Razaaq Cheema told AFP.
The dead included a policeman while the injured included women and children as well as police officers, Cheema said.
Rescue and hospital officials confirmed the death toll while a bomb disposal expert said the device weighed 6kg.
Meanwhile, a bomb exploded in a busy market on Thursday in Lahore, killing one person, said police official Raj Tahir. The bomb, which was planted in a restaurant in the market, also wounded 11 people, he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for that attack either, but suspicion will likely fall on the Pakistani Taliban and their allies.
