QUETTA – Six people were killed and 18 others wounded Friday morning in a bomb attack on an ANP (Awami National Party) public meeting in Kuchlak, some 20 kilometres off Quetta, police said.An ANP official however said eight people died and 22 were injured. Pakhtoon Students Federation Vice President Malik Muhammad Qasim Kakar was among those killed. ANP Provincial President Aurangzaib Kasi and his wife Mahar Aurangzaib too sustained serious wounds.The bomb mounted on a bicycle by unidentified people went off close to the venue soon after the meeting began at the main bazaar of the town, police said. “The blast was followed by intense gunfire that triggered panic among the people who ran helter-skelter forming a stampede in the crowded market,” a police official said.The dead and injured were moved to the Civil Hospital Quetta, where emergency was declared. At least four seriously injured were later referred to the Combined Military Hospital. Among the dead were Malik Faisal Shah Kakar, Noor Muhammad and Dost Muhammad while identity of two deceased was yet to be confirmed.Police and other law enforcement agencies rushed to blast site and cordoned off the area. The blast also destroyed four vehicles, besides creating panic among the people. Bomb Disposal Squad sources said it was a time bomb with 7 to 8kg of explosive material.“The blast took place just after 15 minutes of the beginning of the public meeting,” an eyewitness told The Nation. The security arrangements there were insufficient but luckily the cycle was parked between two vehicles that restricted the damage, he added.A large number of activists of the ANP and the Pakhtun Students Federation reached outside the Civil Hospital and blocked the Jinnah Road, the Shara-e-Iqbal and the Liaquat Bazaar by placing barricades and burning old tyres.They chanted slogans against the administration and demanded immediate arrest of culprits. Infuriated protesters also smashed windscreens of several vehicles and broke glasses panes of shops. Some of them even resorted to aerial firing and forced shopkeepers to close down their shops.The ANP announced a-three-day mourning and a shutter down strike in the provincial capital, Quetta, today. No group had claimed responsibility for the blast till filing of this report. Addressing a press conference, ANP Balochistan chapter acting president Obaidullah Abid alleged the administration of negligence, saying that they had expressed their reservations about the security arrangements but they paid no heed. He said that eight workers were killed and 22 others wounded.