QUETTA: Five people lost their lives and 28 others were wounded when a bicycle bomb tore through a market on Airport Road on Friday, police said.

A time device was fixed to the bicycle by terrorists who parked it in the market at Almo Chowk, police said, adding that unsuspecting people were busy shopping when the bomb went off.

One person was killed on the spot and 32 others were injured in the powerful blast, police officer Tanzeem Hussain Shah said.

Police and Frontier Corps personnel took the victims to hospital where four of the injured died.

Some of the injured were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital, Quetta, from the civil hospital. Most of the victims were shopkeepers and common men who were buying edibles for Iftar.

Around a dozen shops were destroyed and windowpanes of nearby buildings smashed because of the impact of the blast. A number of vehicles and motorcycles parked in the market or passing through the area at the time were damaged.

Quetta DIG Chaudhry Manzoor, SSP Operations Nadeem Hussain and other officers of police and Frontier Corps reached the site and ordered investigation.

Bomb disposal squad after collecting evidence from the scene of the incident said that around six kilograms of explosives were used by the terrorists.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

Balochistan Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai, Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri and Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti condemned the blast and expressed sorrow over the death of innocent people.

“Terrorists involved in this act would be brought to justice as soon as possible,” Mr Zehri said and directed police and authorities concerned to utilise all resources at their disposal to arrest the elements involved in the inhuman act.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016