QUETTA - At least 14 people, including five children, were killed and more than 40 others injured in a blast Thursday outside a seminary (madrissa) at Sariab Link Road in Satellite Town area of Quetta.
A powerful bomb went off when hundreds of students and scholars were attending a degree-distributing ceremony (Dastar Bandi) at Jamia Islamia Miftah-ul-Uloom, run by prominent religious scholar Maulana Abdul Baqi. The ceremony was to award degrees to 150 students who had learnt the Holy Quran by heart.
DIG Operations Qazi Abdul Wahid, reaching the spot after the blast, told media persons that an unidentified person left an explosives-fitted bicycle closer to the seminary’s main gate when he apparently could not succeed in entering the building due to tight security.
He said it was a huge blast that also damaged several vehicles and rickshaws and shattered windowpanes of nearby shops.
Eyewitnesses, however, said the explosives were planted with a cart parked near the seminary.
“It was not a suicide blast,” confirmed DIG Operations, adding, police were already deputed in the area where the blast took place. “Had the blast occurred inside the madrissa, the number of casualties would have been higher,” he added.
Police, personnel of the Frontier Corps and Edhi ambulances rushed to the site and moved the dead and injured to the Civil Hospital Quetta and private hospitals. Emergency was declared at the hospitals.
Doctor Muhammad Haider at the Civil Hospital confirmed five children were also among the dead while the condition of some injured was critical. “Some injured succumbed to injuries at the hospital,” he added.
Blast victims with critical injuries were later moved to Combined Military Hospital for further treatment, while the condition of five injured was reported to be precarious.
Police and the Frontier Corps cordoned off the area after the blast and tightened security.
“Around five to eight kilograms of explosive was used in the blast,” officials of the bomb disposal squad said, adding nuts and bolts used in the bomb for a severe splinter effect were also found from the blast site.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta Mir Zubair said it was a remote-controlled blast. He added that there were no reports of religious seminaries being given any threats.
“The degree-distribution ceremony was about to conclude at the time of the blast. The whole building was jolted,” Qari Inyatullah, a senior student of Jamia Islamia told TheNation, adding that coming outside they saw dozens of students and people lying on the ground in a pool of blood and shouting for help.
Eyewitnesses said there was no proper security arrangements at the madrissa as the people could move easily in and out of the premises when the gruesome incident took place.
Sources said two nephews of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s General Secretary Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haidari – identified as Shabir Ahmed and Kaleemullah – were also among the dead.
The deceased were identified as Faizan, 6, Muhammad Younns, 8, Pir Bakush, 10, Whzakat and Fizan, Haji Inyatullah, Qari Atta-ur-Rehman, Rahatullah, Nazeer Ahmed, Qari Hussain Ahmed and Muheebullah.
A large number of relatives of the victims rushed to the hospitals to see for themselves the condition of their dear ones.
Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi and Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani condemned the blast and directed the authorities concerned to investigate the incident and take stern action against the culprits.
Bomb kills 14 at Quetta seminary