QUETTA: A labourer was killed and 18 others were injured in a grenade attack on a restaurant in Quetta and a blast in the Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express at the Sibi Railway Station on Monday.

According to police, two unidentified men on a motorcycle hurled a grenade into the restaurant on the Prince Road where people were having breakfast.

The grenade exploded at the entrance of the eatery, killing the labourer and injuring 15 others.

“The deceased was identified as Mohammad Ashraf, 65,” police said, adding that the victim had been doing masonry work on a wall of the restaurant at the time of the blast. Ashraf hailed from Bahawalpur.

Quoting witnesses, police sources said that two men on a motorcycle hurled the grenade and escaped.

“The blast was so powerful that it was heard far and wide,” they said.

FC and police personnel reached the scene of the incident and took the injured to the civil hospital

A portion of the restaurant was badly damaged and windowpanes of nearby hotels and shops were shattered.

Meanwhile, three men were injured when a blast occurred in a bogie of the Jaffar Express at the Sibi railway station.

“The blast ripped through a bathroom of the AC sleeper compartment,” police said.

However, Sibi Assistant Commissioner Shafqat Anwar Shahwani ruled out any sabotage and said the gas cylinder of air conditioner had exploded.

The FC personnel cordoned off the railway station and took the injured to the hospital.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2014