DERA MURAD JAMALI: At least 12 people were injured in a bomb explosion in Dera Allahyar town of Jaffarabad district while teachers associated with the Education Support Programme escaped unhurt in another blast close to a Unicef vehicle in the same district on Tuesday.

Police officials said that an explosive-rigged motorcycle was parked at Sohbatpur Chowk in Dera Allahyar and the explosive device was detonated with remote control, injuring 12 people.

Police and Frontier Corps personnel shifted the injured people to the District Hospital in Dera Murad Jamali. “The injured have received multiple wounds,” the hospital official said and added that four of them, who had suffered serious injuries, were shifted to Larkana.

The explosion rocked the town and smashed windowpanes of nearby buildings. “An improvised explosive device was used in the blast and detonated by remote control,” SSP of Jaffarabad Ayaz Baloch said.

This was followed by another explosion targeting a vehicle of the United Nations Interna­tional Children Emergency Fund (Unicef) in Wahid Bakhsh Khosa village in the Mir Hassan area.

Police said that some male and female teachers of the Education Support Programme were returning home in the vehicle while inspecting some schools when the blast occurred. The vehicle was damaged but the teachers travelling in it remained unhurt.

Police officials said that the target of the terrorists was the Unicef vehicle.

Two blasts with the span of 24 hours sent a wave of panic among the residents of Dera Allahyar town and the Mir Hasan area.

Security forces launched a search operation to trace out the terrorists involved in the explosions.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2019