DERA MURAD JAMALI: At least 12 people, including two officials of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), were injured in a bomb explosion in Nasirabad district on Monday night.

Police said that the explosive device was planted in a motorcycle parked at a bus stand on Quetta-Karachi National Highway.

The explosive device went off when a vehicle of CTD reached there.

“The target of the blast was CTD officials who were travelling in an official vehicle,” a senior police official said.

Soon after the blast, police and Frontier Corps personnel reached there and took the injured to the district hospital in Dera Murad Jamali.

Three seriously injured people were sent to Larkana for treatment.

The blast was so powerful that it was heard several kilometres away from its site.

Many pushcarts of vegetable and a rickshaw caught fire after the blast.

Windowpanes of nearby buildings and shops were smashed due to the impact of the explosion.

Police identified some of the injured as Abdul Ghani Jonejo, Nisar Ahmed Pand­rani, Shah Nawaz, Ghulam Sarwar, Mohamm­ad Yaqoob, Mir Mohammad Jamali, Khadim Rind and Ali Mengal.

The identity of four injured could not be ascertained.

Security forces stared investigation and launched a search operation in the area to trace out the elements behind the blast.

Some suspects were taken into custody for interrogation.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2019