A child lost his life while eight others were injured on Tuesday when a hand grenade exploded in the Zarchain area of Balochistan’s Wadh city, police said.

According to Wadh Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Abdul Manaf, the children from a madressah were “playing with the hand grenade when it exploded”, resulting in the casualties.

He further said that the injured were immediately taken to a local hospital in Wadh. Two of them were being taken to a hospital in Khuzdar when one of them succumbed to his injuries, Manaf added.

The DSP further said that the area has been cordoned off and an investigation was under way.

Previous similar incidents

Incidents where people were said to be playing with similar dangerous objects have also occurred in the past.

Last month, nine people, including four children, lost their lives while a woman was injured when a “rocket launcher’s” ordnance exploded in a house in Sindh’s Kashmore district.

In April this year, a shepherd was killed in a grenade blast on the outskirts of Chaman when he found the hand grenade and started playing with it.

Two days prior to that, three children were killed in an explosion in an abandoned compound in the same region while playing with an object they had found inside the compound.

In January last year, two children were killed and another was critically wounded in an explosion when the grenade they were playing with went off.

In June 2021, three teenage boys died and two others suffered injuries in a hand grenade explosion in Quetta. The children were playing with the hand grenade “after mistaking it for a toy” when it exploded.

In January of the same year, three bro­thers were killed and two others injured when a grenade that they found in the fields and were playing with went off in Peshawar.

In a similar incident in January 2019, three children were killed and another sustained injuries in Balochistan’s Washuk district after they had found an unexploded grenade and were playing with it when it exploded.

In April 2013, a toy bomb exploded in Buner District, killing two children and a woman after the rocket-like shell they were playing with exploded.

The same month, at least two people were injured when a rocket landed from an unknown direction at a political gathering in South Waziristan’s Wana area.

Local political admin sources had said that children had found a toy-looking explosive device which exploded after they had brought it home and were busy playing with it.