QUETTA, Aug 29: Four people were killed in a bomb blast in a Hub restaurant and clashes between protesters and law-enforcement personnel left many, including a police constable, injured across Balochistan on Tuesday.
The clashes broke out following the funeral prayers of Nawab Akbar Bugti who was reportedly killed in an attack on his mountain hideout in the Kohlu district on Aug 26.
The restaurant in the industrial town of Hub was packed with labourers, sipping tea leisurely and watching a film on TV, when the improvised bomb exploded, leaving many people wounded.
“All the victims were labourers working in neighbouring factories,” said provincial police chief Chaudhry Yaqub.
He added that police had rounded up over 600 people in Quetta and other strife-hit areas of the province.
The Quetta administration called in the Frontier Constabulary when armed men opened fire on police. As the local government struggled to maintain law and order, Quetta Nazim Mir Maqbool Lehri announced that all educational institutions would remain closed till Sunday.
Violent protests erupted when, shortly after the funeral prayers in the Ayub Stadium, an angry mob prefaced their demonstration by setting fire to at least six shops. Two bank branches were also torched and the Chaman railway crossing damaged.
Police said an arson attack on the tehsil and settlement office, containing a record of private lands in Quetta, left the building gutted, setting off plumes of thick black smoke.
They said they exchanged fire with armed mourners and the shootout left Constable Elahi Bakhsh wounded. A stray bullet hit a shopkeeper in the chest. He was taken to hospital where doctors said his condition was serious.
Hand-grenades were lobbed into the Ayub Stadium and at least two bombs exploded near the venue of the funeral prayers, No one was reported hurt.
Turbat and Gwadar also saw an outbreak of violent protests shortly after the funeral prayers.
QUETTA, Aug 29: Four people were killed in a bomb blast in a Hub restaurant and clashes between protesters and law-enforcement personnel left many, including a police constable, injured across Balochistan on Tuesday.
