38 people injured in twin blasts in Pakistan

Karachi, October 20

Two grenade blasts have rocked Pakistan’s restive south-western province of Baluchistan, injuring at least 38 people, police said.

The twin blasts took place within minutes in the Mastung and Gwadar districts, police said.

According to senior police officials, around 12 people were injured, three of them seriously, when two men on a motorcycle wearing helmets threw a hand grenade at a crowd in the Sultan Shaheed area in Mastung town on Thursday.

The injured were shifted to a hospital while three were moved to Quetta as their condition was serious, local police official Gulab Khan said.

The second attack took place when two men on a motorcycle threw a hand grenade at Al-Zubair hotel outside a mobile market in Safar Khan area of Gwadar town.

“At least 26 people were injured in the blast,” local police official Ayaz Baluch said.

He said the injured included 15 labourers from Sindh and 11 from Punjab who had gathered after work to have tea.

“Three of them have been shifted to Karachi for treatment,” he said.

The injured have been shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, Mastung.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri has condemned the incidents and asked the authorities to submit a report on the blasts.

The attacks have come a day after a suspected suicide bomber hit a police truck in Quetta, Baluchistan’s capital, killing seven policemen and a civilian and injuring 22 others. PTI