QUETTA, Nov 21: At least five people, a police constable among them, were killed and 44 others injured in three bomb blasts in Quetta, Chaman and Kuchlak areas of Balochistan on Thursday. The injured included 11 police and Frontier Corps personnel.

The banned Baloch United Army claimed responsibility for the blast in Quetta. It was the fourth blast in Quetta within 24 hours.

The three bomb blasts carried out by the same militant organisation in different parts of Quetta on Wednesday had left seven people dead and over 50 injured, including women and children.

Officials said a motorcycle fitted with an explosive device was parked near the city’s Barrach market at T-Chowk on Sirki and Double roads. It was detonated by remote control at about 9.15am, killing three people on the spot and injuring 37 others.

Police and FC personnel shifted the bodies and the injured to the Civil Hospital, but two of the injured died.

DIG Operations Jaffar Khan told Dawn that the target was a patrol team of FC personnel. “Two FC vehicles were damaged and three personnel injured in the powerful explosion.”

He said a constable was killed while eight policemen and four Balochistan Constabulary personnel were injured. Police were searching vehicles when the blast took place.

“The dead include a 10-year-old rag-picker and three civilians who were passing through the area at the time of the blast,” Balochistan Home Secretary Asad Gilani said, adding that the checkpost was set up as part of security measures on the eve of 6th death anniversary of Baloch nationalist leader Mir Balaach Khan Mari.

“Eight kilograms of explosives were used in the blast,” bomb disposal squad officials said. Eight vehicles were destroyed and several shops and buildings damaged.

The condition of five of the injured was serious. Some of the injured were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Quetta.

Those killed in the blast were identified as Constable Asghar Ali, Ghulam Hussain, Maroof Shah, rag-picker Ghulam Mohammad and Manzoor Ahmed.

“We are investigating the incident,” a senior police officer said, adding that security had been beefed up in and around Quetta after the four blasts carried out on Wednesday.

Calling journalists from an unspecified place, Baloch United Army’s spokesman Mureed Baloch said his organisation had carried out the Barrach Market bomb blast. He also claimed responsibility for the three blasts on Wednesday.

In another attack in Quetta, a police constable was injured when men riding a motorcycle hurled a grenade at the Balochistan Constabulary’s Tipu Line in Sariab area.

Three people, including a woman and a child, were injured in a blast near a religious seminary in Kucklak area, about 25km from Quetta, on the Quetta-Chaman Highway.

Police said the bomb placed close to the Madressah went off with a bang. A wall of the Madressah and some nearby shops were damaged.

Three passers-by were injured in a bomb blast in the border town of Chaman. Chaman Assistant Commissioner Ismail Ibrahim said that unknown people had parked an explosive-laden motorbike close to the Christen Colony and detonated it by remote control.

Soon after the explosion, security personnel rushed to the area and shifted the injured to district hospital.

No one has claimed responsibility.

Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the blasts and ordered early arrest of the culprits.