At least 12 people were injured in an explosion during a football match on Tuesday at a ground in Allahbad Town located in Balochistan's industrial town of Hub, police officials said.

According to Hub Assistant Commissioner retired Lt Mohammad Ahmed Zaheer, the injured persons were rushed to the nearby Jam Ghulam Qadir Hospital for first aid, from where they were shifted to Karachi.

AC Zaheer said that two of the injured were in critical condition but they were said to be out of danger.

Lasbela SSP Tariq Ilahi, who inspected the site of the explosion, told the media that it was caused by a locally manufactured improvised explosive device (IED) that had been planted in the ground.

According to the SSP, the football tournament was dedicated to police martyrs. "The explosion occurred while the final match was being played," he said, adding that police were investigating further into the nature of the blast and a possible motive.

Uptick in violence

There has been an uptick in violence in restive Balochistan, with several incidents of terrorism being reported last year.

On October 16, seven soldiers of Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan and seven security guards were martyred in an 'encounter' with a "large number of terrorists" while escorting a convoy of state-run Oil & Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) on the Makran Coastal Highway in Ormara.

The convoy was on its way to Karachi from Gwadar when it came under attack.

In August last year, at least eight people, including police and FC personnel, were injured in a blast in Hub.

In April 2019, at least 14 people, including 11 personnel of Navy, Air Force and Coast Guards, were killed by gunmen after they were picked out with the help of their computerised national identity cards (CNICs) and offloaded from seven buses in the Buzi Pass area near Ormara.

The incident had taken place on the Makran Coastal Highway linking Karachi with the port city of Gwadar. The buses were going to Gwadar from Karachi.

An alliance of three banned militant organisations — the Balochistan Liberation Front, Balochistan Republican Army and Baloch Republican Guard — had claimed responsibility for the killings.