Five arrested as police foils bomb blast attempt in SW Pakistan
Pakistan Times Balochistan Bureau Report

QUETTA: The Balochistan police has arrested five terrorists on charges of planting a bomb at the Usta Mohammad city of Balochistan.

The police arrested four people and recovered explosive material from them after the blast.

District Nazim Jaffarabad said on Monday that the terrorists were planting the bomb at the Amroi mosque in Usta Mohammad, which suddenly exploded due to which one terrorist was injured.

The police along with the wounded terrorist arrested his four accomplices and recovered explosive material from them.

Police says, the arrested terrorists belong to the banned religious outfit Harkat-Ul-Ansar. More investigations regarding the incident are underway.

Fatahpur toll rises to 50

Meanwhile, a story of news agency Inp, quoting police and eyewitness says that the death toll of bombing on Sunday reached 50, while only 26 bodies have so far been identified.

The bomb exploded during a memorial to a Sufi saint Cheesal Shah late Saturday night in Fatahpur, Jhal Magsi.

“The death toll has risen to 50 while 35 people are critically injured, hospital sources said. Bomb Disposal Squad has defused another bomb, which was planted at the same vicinity Baluchistan police chief Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqub said adding that investigators have reached the site of the blast and are collecting evidence. We are trying to ascertain whether it was a suicide bombing, because the body of a man close to the blast site had been ripped into small pieces, he said.

He said the blast was caused by a home-made explosive device detonated by a timer. Officials have said that so far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which occured at around 10:30 pm local time Saturday. Yagub believes the blast could have been related to sectarian violence or be the work of renegade tribesmen.

The Target

Adding that it could also have been targeted at the custodian of the shrine, Sadiq Ali Shah, who escaped unhurt.

Shah has been in a dispute with relatives over the custody of the shrine and last year survived an assassination attempt, Yaqub said. The blast occurred as between 10,000 and 20,000 people had gathered for an annual pilgrimage at the shrine of saint Cheesal Shah, said Syed Kamil Shah, the brother of the shrine’s custodian.

Devotees of Sufism, followers of rival Sunni and Shiite sects were at the site with a number of Hindus. Many of them had only just sat down to eat when the bomb went off, witnesses said.

The food was being handed out amongst the devotees when there was a huge, loud blast,” one pilgrim Mohammad Midhal said.

“Everyone was wailing, they were covered in blood, staggering around and lifting up people to see if they were injured or even alive. “It was total chaos because everything was so crowded.” Another, unexploded bomb was found near the shrine shortly after the first device detonated, Mohammad Amin Umrani, the mayor of neighbouring Naseerabad said.●