Islamabad: At least 24 people, including the wife of a top Frontier Corps (FC) officer, and a colonel were killed in two suicide bombings yesterday in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's troubled Balochistan province, police said.
The attacks, targeting security forces responsible for the recent capture of a senior Al Qaida operative, also injured 82 others.
"The death toll has gone up and 24 deaths are now confirmed. There were at least 82 people wounded and taken to different hospitals. We have reports that at least seven of them are seriously hurt," said Hamid Shakil, a senior police official. FC deputy head Brigadier Farrukh Shahzad was injured and admitted to a military hospital.
His wife, a colonel and a dozen other personnel of the federally-controlled paramilitary force were among the dead, senior police officer Ahsan Mehboob told the media in Quetta.
According to Shakil, one attacker detonated a land cruiser filled with bombs outside the residence of Brigadier Shahzad as he was leaving and moments later a second assailant blew himself up inside the house.
A mosque and official residences nearby were also damaged. The police said the head of one of the bombers was found, along with an identity card that indicated he could be from Afghanistan's Kunduz province. The explosions brought down the walls of the FC deputy chief's house and nearby offices.
Area cordoned off
Security personnel immediately cordoned off the area and an investigation was started. Brigadier Shahzad's residence is located in the same area as the provincial governor's house and the chief minister's secretariat.
The attacks, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, struck at rush hour in an area packed with security guarding Quetta's officials and government buildings. Hitting the residence of deputy chief Farrukh Shahzad, the bombs wounded him, killed his wife and injured at least one of his children, security officials said.
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