QUETTA: At least 12 people, among them a member of the National Assembly and his son, were injured in a remote-controlled bomb blast near a mosque in Dera Bugti on Friday. The banned Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The remote-controlled bomb was planted in a car parked near a mosque,” official sources said, adding it was detonated when Mir Ahmadan Bugti and his son Shaukat Khan were heading to the mosque for Friday prayer.
Twelve people were injured in the blast that rocked the entire town and left the area residents terrified. The Frontier Corps and police personnel took the injured to the district hospital.
“The target of the blast was Mr Bugti and his son,” a senior police officer said, adding that further investigation into the incident was under way.
The other injured were identified as Mohammad Arif, Mohammad Iqbal, Mohammad Khan, Abdul Jabbar, Masho Khan, Mohammad Farooq, Mohammad Jan, Khuda Bakhsh, Mir Baig and Abdul Wahab.
A senior official of the district administration, Abdul Jabbar Khan, said most of the injured were out of danger. However, he added, Mr Bugti and his son were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital, Multan.
Sarbaz Baloch, a spokesman for the proscribed Baloch Republican Army organisation, in a telephone call to journalists said BRA was behind the attack. AFP quoted Home Secretary Akbar Durrani as saying Mr Bugti’s leg was badly wounded in the blast.
