QUETTA - At least four people including a woman and two children were killed and 12 others received critical injuries when an explosives-laden car parked in a residential house exploded at Sariab locality of Quetta on Sunday.
The blast was so powerful that it was heard some four kilometrrs away from its place and badly damaged two nearby buildings and smashed windowpanes of other buildings.
According to DIG Operations Quetta, Wazir Khan Nasar, the explosion occurred at a residential house located in Faizabad area of Sariab. “The explosives were kept in a vehicle that was parked in the parking lot of the house which exploded with a big bang and destroyed the front portion of the building,” he added.
As a result, four people, including a woman and two children were killed and 12 others including 4 women and six 6 children sustained injuries who were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta.
Doctors in hospital confirmed that three dead bodies had been brought to the hospital, adding some serious injured had been shifted to Combined Military Hospital for further treatment.
Following the blast, police, personnel of Frontier Corps and rescue workers rushed to the site and pulled out the deceased and injured from the rubble.
DIG Operations Quetta said over 80-kilograms explosives were used in the blast and investigations were underway to ascertain how the explosives-laden vehicle reached there. “An occupant of the house has been arrested by police who is being interrogated,” he added.
Area people told this ascribed that the house was owned by a renowned Dr Azam Mengal who was currently living in Dubai and had rented it to some people belonging to Nushki district. “We always witnessed children and women coming and going inside the house,” they added.
Another police official told TheNation that bodies of a woman and two children from the debris had been recovered while police had also found a severed head which was believed to be of a militant who was killed in the blast.
One deceased woman was identified as Fahmida while some injured were identified as Raz Muhammad, 12, Ehsan Nasir, Laraib, Amir Hamza, 11, Bibi Samina, Nadira Bibi, 10, Yaseen, 4, Bibi Abida, Durdana, 8, Malka Bibi and Bijar Khan.
The police collected the evidence from the scene of the blast and started the investigations. No group had claimed responsibility for the blast till filing of this report.

Agencies add: “We have recovered the bodies of a woman and two children from the debris and also found a severed head, believed to be of a militant who was killed in the blast,” police officer Mukhtar Ahmed told AFP.
The injured included seven children, some of them related to the dead, he said.
“The target was not clear. We have launched an investigation to identify the militant. Police were also interrogating the owner of the house,” he said.
Abdul Razzaq, in charge of the bomb-disposal squad in Quetta, told AFP the car was carrying between 80 and 100 kilos of explosives.


Woman, children among 4 dead in Quetta blast