LAHORE: A police official and a civilian were killed and eight others, including four passersby, injured in an explosion outside the Qaddafi Stadium on Friday night, police said.

DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf told Dawn the gas cylinder of an auto rickshaw exploded with a bang outside the main gate of the stadium on Ferozpur Road where a large number of policemen were deputed to provide security for the second One-Day International match between Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

A sub-inspector was killed instantaneously and four other policemen suffered multiple injuries. Four passersby were also injured, he said.

The DIG said that the body of a civilian was found in the rickshaw and investigations were under way to establish his identity.

The incident took place when the match was in progress at the Qaddafi Stadium in front of a large crowd.

A Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman first told the media that a large bang heard in the vicinity had been caused by a blast in an electricity transformer installed near the stadium. The police, however, later confirmed it to be the cylinder blast in the auto rickshaw.

The injured were shifted to nearby hospitals. An official at the Jinnah Hospital’s emergency told Dawn that it had received four people, including three policemen, with minor injuries.

They were identified as Ghulam Hussain, Arshad Ali, Ghulam Abbas and Allah Dita, he said, adding that their condition was stable.

Earlier, Dawn talked to a senior police officer who did not rule out the possibility of it being a suicide attack. Requesting anonymity, he said establishing the identity of the rickshaw passenger who died in the explosion was crucial to investigation. Some other senior police officers, however, ruled out this possibility.

The detectives were also questioning the rickshaw driver who was said to have been injured in the blast.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2015

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