QUETTA, Sept 8: At least six people were killed and 17 injured, four of them seriously, when a powerful bomb blast hit the Rakhni bazaar area of Barkhan district on Friday morning.

“Two of the victims died on the spot and four succumbed to injuries while being shifted to Dera Ghazi Khan,” official sources said, adding that most of the victims were labourers.

People of the area immediately reacted over the explosion and blocked the road linking Balochistan to Punjab by placing barricades on it. As a result, vehicular traffic between Loralai and Dera Ghazi Khan remained suspended for the entire day.

According to sources, unidentified people had planted a powerful bomb in a dustbin near the passenger wagon stop. It went off around 9.15am when people were waiting for wagons to leave for Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan.

“It was a time bomb,” inspector Hafiz Inayatullah, SHO Rakhni police, said, adding that the blast broke an electric towers into splinters which proved fatal for the victims.