May 02, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1429

QUETTA, May 1: Three Pakistanis were among nine people killed in two explosions in Spin Buldak, an Afghan town near the Pakistani border town of Chaman on Thursday. The explosions left nine other people injured, three of them seriously.

“All the people killed in the explosions are civilians,” a senior official of the Spin Buldak district administration told Dawn by telephone.

He said a pick-up carrying people to Loya Karez from Spin Buldak township hit a landmine planted on the road by militants.

The powerful explosion ripped through the pick-up, killing four people on the spot. Another explosion took place half an hour later when another vehicle hit a landmine in the same area.

“Five people were killed and six others injured in the second blast,” Afghan border authorities said, adding that the second vehicle was carrying people for taking the people injured in the earlier blast and the bodies of the deceased to hospital.

Limbs of victims were spread across a wide area, an official said, confirming that three Pakistanis were among the dead.

They have been identified as Agha Mohammad, Safar Mohammad and Abdul Hadi.

Afghan officials handed over the bodies of the three Pakistanis to the Frontier Corps at the Pak-Afghan border in the afternoon.

“Pakistanis killed in the blasts belonged to Pishin and they were doing business in Spin Buldak,” said the official.

He said that after the explosions, Afghan security forces cordoned off the area and started investigations.

The injured were taken to the Spin Buldak hospital where condition of the three injured was stated to be serious.