QUETTA: Twenty-seven people were injured in a bomb blast in the busy Prince Road area here on Wednesday evening. A leader of the ruling National Party was among the wounded.

The powerful blast took place at a time when President Mamnoon Hussain was in the city holding meetings with the governor, ministers and senior officials at the Governor House. He arrived in Quetta in the afternoon on a three-day official visit.

According to police, an improvised explosive device rigged to a bicycle parked outside a restaurant went off at about 8pm. Most victims were either having their meals at the restaurant or passing through the area.

“Twenty-seven people were injured in the blast. No one was killed,” city police chief Abdul Razaq Cheema told Dawn.

The restaurant and six shops were destroyed in the blast that rocked the provincial capital. Several vehicles, motorcycles and rickshaws were damaged and windowpanes of almost all nearby buildings and shops smashed. A number of nearby shops caught fire.

National Party leader Sardar Khalilur Rehman Loni, who was injured, was passing through the area when the explosion took place. He belongs to Duki area of Loralai district.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2014