Quetta (Staff Report): Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Sunday arrived in Quetta, a day after a suspected suicide attack on a military vehicle in the city left eight soldiers and seven civilians dead.
Sources said the army chief will visit the injured undergoing treatment in hospitals to inquire after their health and also chair a security meeting.
At least fifteen people including eight soldiers were martyred and 40 others were injured when a suicide bomber targeted a military truck near the Pishin bus stop on Saturday night.
According to officials, it was a suicide attack and the bomber drove his motorcycle, rigged with explosives, into the military truck. The blast ignited a fire on the truck and several other vehicles driving past, they added.
Officials feared the death toll may climb, as eight of the wounded were in critical condition.
Around 25-30 kilograms of explosives were used in the suicide attack, another official said.
The Inter-Services Public Relations said it was an attack on an “on duty military vehicle”.
At least eight military men and seven civilians were martyred and 25 others, among them 15 civilians, injured in the attack, ISPR confirmed. “Incendiary explosives were used,” the ISPR stated, though it didn’t explicitly say the attack involved a suicide bomber.
A heavy contingent of law enforcement agencies personnel arrived at the scene of the explosion and cordoned off the area, which is in close proximity of the Balochistan Assembly, Quetta Law College, a private hospital and many offices.
The dead and the wounded were shifted to the Civil Hospital Quetta, where along with other health facilities in the city a state of emergency had been declared.
