QUETTA: At least two people were killed and 23 others injured in a bomb explosion in Sibi on Saturday.

“A motorcycle bomb was detonated in front of a tea stall on Chakar Khan Road in the heart of town,” a police officer said. The blast was so powerful that it rocked the entire town.

A man was killed on the spot and 24 others were injured. Personnel of police and other law-enforcement agencies took the body and the injured to the Sibi District Hospital and Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

“An injured man died in a hospital,” the police officer said.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Omer Khosa and Khuda Bakhsh Khosa of Sibi.

“They were passing through the Chakar Khan Road when the motorbike blew up,” police said, adding that their bodies had been handed to heirs.

“The condition of at least four injured people is critical as they were hit by splinters and parts of the motorcycle,” police said, quoting hospital sources.

“The victims were mostly labourers who used to sit in the area to find daily wage work,” they said.

Police said it appeared that the target of the attack were common people going to the local cattle market.

The bomb disposal squad personnel collected evidence from the site and said at least 5kg of explosives had been used in the blast.

AFP quoted a police official, Nazar Mohammad, as saying that the bomb was detonated by remote control.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014