LATEST NEWS:

News Desk

Dawn

Publication Date : 06-03-2013

Pakistani security forces on Tuesday foiled a major terrorist bid by defusing a 50-kilogram bomb in Sariab Road, Quetta, said officials.

Security forces, on a tip off, spotted a rickshaw with 50 kilograms of explosives installed in it in Sariab Road in Balochistan’s restive capital.

Officials said that unknown miscreants had planted the bomb. “The rickshaw was being brought to the main city,” a security official who requested not to be named told Dawn.

He, however, said that no arrests had been made. The bomb disposal squad was soon at the scene to defuse the heavy bomb. “Had miscreants succeeded in parking the rickshaw, there would have been a major terror attack,” said the official.

A suicide-bomb, targeting Shia Hazaras, had killed more than 90 people including women and children and wounded 200 others on February 17.

And in a similar attack, at least 93 people were killed and 121 wounded on January 10 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a crowded snooker club in Alamdar Road, in Quetta, an area dominated by the Shia community.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had imposed governor rule in the province under article 234 of the constitution after the attack.

Surrounding areas were evacuated before the bomb disposal squad started defusing the bomb on Tuesday. The official said the rickshaw driver was also taken into custody for interrogation.

Later, the rickshaw was shifted to Kechi Baig Police Station for further investigation.

Other than sectarianism, Balochistan is also rife with militants and hit by a regional insurgency which began in 2004, with fighters demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s natural resources.