QUETTA - A suicide car bomber has blown himself up outside the gate of a mosque in Zhob Cantonment, wounding at least five people.
Senior police officer Zahid Afzal said the attacker detonated the car bomb Friday after being asked to halt. He said a child, a civilian and three security force members were wounded in the attack.
The police officer said the attacker failed to enter the army’s cantonment which houses offices and residential buildings for officers.
Shortly after the attack, Azam Tariq, a spokesman for a breakaway faction of Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility in a telephone call with American news agency, The Associated Press.
According to local news agencies, the bomber targeted a mosque located inside the cantonment area. “A soldier performing guard duty challenged the attacker outside the main gate of the mosque before he blew himself up,” Deputy Commissioner Zhob, Nazir Ahmed, said.
He said a large number of people were offering Friday prayers in the mosque, adding the injured were shifted to Civil Hospital.
In another incident, two persons were killed and several others injured when unidentified armed motorcyclists opened firing on a private clinic situated at Kandhari Road in Chaman.
Levies personnel cordoned off the area after the incident and conducted operation to arrest the culprits.
GOVT OFFICIALS GO MISSING
A deputy director agriculture was among six others who went missing from Kanobi area in Loralai on Friday.
According to police, unidentified armed men kidnapped Habibullah, Deputy Director Agriculture, and five other officials while they were returning from a function on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, security personnel recovered huge cache of arms, suicide jackets, hand grenades and explosives from a vehicle in Qilla Saifullah.
Levies sources said they signalled a suspected vehicle to stop in Qilla Saifullah. The culprits on board instead of halting the vehicle sped away and left the vehicle on roadside and escaped.
During search of vehicle suicide jackets, hand grenades, rocket launcher, rockets, bullets, other weapons and explosive material were found.
The security forces cordoned off the area after the recovery of weapons and ammunition.