Two cops among 8 killed in Quetta suicide attack

QUETTA: At least eight people—including two police officers—were killed and 23 others wounded in a suicide blast near Quetta Press Club on Monday, officials said.

A young suicide bomber was trying to enter a religious rally but police intercepted him at a security barrier at the city’s Shahra-e-Iqbal Road. “As police were searching him, he detonated his vest, resulting in the killing of eight people including two policemen, while injuring 23 others,” senior police official Abdul Razzaq Cheema told AFP.

The toll was confirmed by a local hospital spokesman, Mohammad Waseem Baig. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. In January, at least 15 people, including Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ammanullah and the Imam of the mosque, were killed and 19 others sustained injuries in a powerful explosion at a mosque in the provincial capital’s Satellite Town. The bomb explosion took place when the people were offering Maghrib prayers.