March, 20 2005	Sunday	09 Safar 1426

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QUETTA, March 19: Twenty-five people were killed and many others injured on Saturday when a powerful bomb ripped through a crowd gathered at a shrine in the Balochistan town of Gandava, officials said. “I saw 25 bodies myself. People were crying and there were pools of blood,” Mohammad Amin Umrani, the nazim of Naseerabad, told AFP by telephone. Scores of people were also injured in the blast, he said. Between 10,000 and 20,000 people had gathered for the annual Urs, said Syed Kami Shah, the brother of the shrine’s custodian. The bomb went off at 11.45pm as food was being distributed among pilgrims after the Urs ceremony at Gandava, about 350km east of Quetta. “It was a very big explosion,” local police official Rawat Khan told Reuters by telephone. “People’s limbs are scattered everywhere.” There was no indication if the blast was linked to the ongoing unrest in the province. Provincial Home Secretary Humayun Khan said it was premature to suggest who was behind the attack but added: “It is an act of terrorism.”—Agencies Our staff correspondent adds: Quetta and Kohlu were rocked late Friday by bomb explosions and rocket attacks.

Police sources said a powerful explosion took place near the house of a retired government officer, Noor Ahmed, on Sabzal Road, smashing its windowpanes and damaging the shutter of a nearby shop.

“It was a homemade bomb,” they said, adding that no causality was reported.

A homemade bomb was hurled at the house of a railway officer in the morning, causing no loss.

Three rockets exploded in Kohlu on Friday night, causing panic among people. The rockets fired from Dera Mehmood Kot landed in an open area in the township. No damage was reported.