QUETTA: On Friday, a bombing near a girl’s school and a hospital in Mastung town, about 50 kilometers southeast of Quetta, killed at least eight persons, including five kids and a police officer, and injured over thirty more.
As part of the statewide immunization campaign being conducted from October 28 to November 3, officials stated the target of the remote-controlled detonation was a police car on its way to Mastung District Hospital to collect up polio vaccines and transport them to other neighborhoods.
According to authorities, the incident at School-Hospital Chowk in the Majeed Road neighborhood was carried out using an improvised explosive device (IED) planted in a motorcycle.
The police car was driving through the neighborhood when the IED was detonated near the school, where children were arriving in vans and rickshaws. Up to five pupils accepted martyrdom at the bomb site, while one police officer was killed.
State officials denounce the callous attack that targeted a police party en route to pick up a polio team, killing one officer and two civilians.
“Two brothers and a girl and her younger brother who were riding in the school van were among the dead children.”
No one has taken credit for the explosion.
Dawn was then informed by SSP Mastung Rehmatullah that the IED was set off using a remote control. According to him, it was planted in a motorcycle that was parked at School-Hospital Chowk in order to target the police car that was escorting the polio team to the district hospital.
Senior police personnel and Mastung Deputy Commissioner Baz Khan Mari hurried to the explosion site shortly after it occurred. The bodies were moved to DHQ Hospital and Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Raisani Memorial Hospital after the area was roped off.
The hospital spokeswoman first stated, “We have received three bodies and another 30 injured,” before adding that three additional people, including a police official, had passed away.
Eleven severely injured victims—five of whom were schoolchildren—were taken to the Civil Hospital’s trauma center in Quetta.
Eleven critically injured patients were received, according to Quetta hospital officials. Numerous people have sustained multiple injuries. The civil hospital’s spokesman, Dr. Wasim Baig, informed Dawn that the death toll now stands at eight after two of them passed away while receiving treatment and two more died in the trauma center.
According to him, four injured people were sent to CMH in Quetta.
Officials reported that more than thirty injured people were admitted to Nawab Raisani Hospital in Quetta.
Dawn was also informed by Kalat Commissioner Naeem Bazai that the explosion claimed the lives of eight persons, five of them were youngsters. “The explosion occurred at 8:42 a.m. while kids were en route to school,” he stated.
While the windowpanes of surrounding buildings, such as the district hospital, girls’ school, and businesses, were shattered by the impact of the strong bombing that shook the entire town, the school van, a rickshaw, and a few other vehicles suffered severe damage in the explosion.
Police officer Hafeezullah, two civilians, Hakim Ali and Nadeem, and kids Habibullah, Samiullah, Saifullah, Khairunnisa, and Amir Hamza were among the eight individuals, including children, who were killed in the explosion.
Acting President Yousuf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi all immediately condemned the incident, and the National Assembly also offered fateha for the deceased.
The prime minister and acting president both issued separate comments expressing their sorrow over the fatalities and offering their condolences to the families of the deceased. Their determination to eradicate terrorism was reaffirmed. “Humanity’s enemies are terrorists.” “The entire country is united in its support of law enforcement and security forces in their fight against terrorists,” Mr. Gilani stated.
In addition to authorizing the best medical care for the injured, PM Shehbaz gave the authorities instructions to capture the blast’s culprits and hold them accountable.
“Terrorists’ hostility for education in Balochistan is reflected in the school attack. The government of Balochistan and the nation’s morale to support education and development cannot be undermined by such shameful actions. He said, “The entire country is proud of its police officers and soldiers for their sacrifices to protect the nation.”
In addition to expressing profound sadness and anguish over the attack that targeted defenseless children, CM Bugti stated that such incidents only made the government’s determination to eradicate terrorism stronger. Speaking at a laptop distribution event at Government Girls Postgraduate Degree College in Quetta, he stated that the shameful actions could not impede the advancement of education.
In addition to announcing a number of measures, such as a high-tech lab at the college, 50 scooters for female students, and merit-based awards of additional computers, he declared, “We will provide promising students from Balochistan with opportunities to study at esteemed institutions worldwide.”
He urged students to stand together in opposing terrorism and forewarned them of outside efforts to use propaganda to deceive Baloch youngsters.
Given that there are already five deputy commissioners and one assistant commissioner in the province who are women who have demonstrated their ability to be successful administrators, the CM expressed optimism for a bright future for female students in Balochistan. He expressed his belief that a female chief minister would eventually lead Balochistan.
“No tolerance”
Interior Minister Naqvi expressed his deepest sympathies while condemning the event, stating that words alone could not adequately express how he felt about the targeting of innocent youngsters.
He said that “targeting children is a heinous crime that no one should tolerate” and called the incident a “act of brutality.”
The minister made it plain that there would be no tolerance for individuals who committed such heinous crimes.
He declared that the government is committed to bringing those responsible to justice, saying, “The beasts who play with the lives of innocent children do not deserve any compassion.”
Unicef, meanwhile, denounced the horrific assault in Mastung, demanding an end to this needless bloodshed and highlighting the importance of guaranteeing the security and safety of every child.
The UN agency wished the victims a speedy recovery and sent its deepest sympathies to the families impacted by this terrible incident in a statement released in Islamabad on Friday.
NA provides fateha.
Additionally, the National Assembly proposed Fateha for the victims of the gun attack at the Panjgur dam site, the Mastung bombing, and the personnel killed during a security operation in the Bakka Khel area of Bannu.
The lower house of parliament, under the leadership of Ali Muhammad Khan, also provided fateha for the departed relatives of politicians, such as the father of former governor Shah Farman, the brother of MNA Mehtab Ghauri, Mian Iftikhar, and the aunt of Barrister Gohar.
