­MULTAN-At least three persons including a three-year old child were killed while 27 others injured when a suspected cylinder blast took place at a local hotel in Gulshan Market, New Multan area on Monday afternoon.
CPO Multan Masood Munir Marth told media that the incident appeared to be cylinder blast as no traces of explosive material could be found from the spot so far. "The forensic teams are working to ascertain nature of the blast," he said.
Rescue sources confirmed that they shifted three dead bodies and 27 injured to Nishtar Hospital where the condition of some injured was stated to be precarious. Two of the deceased were still unidentified while the third one was identified as Ammar Shah, 03, son of hotel owner Makhan Shah.
Hospital sources disclosed that about eight injured had burn injuries while the remaining had wounds caused by splinters of glass and other articles. The injured were identified as Shazia, Shoaib, Bashir, Rafaqat, Waseem, Khalil, Ahsan Niaz, Jahanzaib, Altaf, Arif, Ismail, Sajjad, Nasir Abbas, Muzammil, Ishfaq, Tajammal. Saeed Akhtar, Kaleem Ullah, Imran, Yousuf, Nadeem, Farhan, Nadeem, Bahrooz, Badar, Farooq and Nadeem.
The blast was so loud that it shatter glass windows of near by buildings. The incident spread panic in the area while police surrounded the blast spot and cordoned off entire area. Forensic teams of police were busy in gathering evidence till filing of this report.
Talking to the journalists at blast site, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that it was a sad incident and the CPO had told him that it looked like a cylinder blast. He said that the hotel owner Makhan Shah had announced supporting him a few days back. "I don't want to accuse anyone. Let the agencies complete their investigation. They'll tell whether it was a cylinder blast or something else," he added.