QUETTA: Three security personnel and two civilians were killed and 28 others injured when a powerful explosion ripped through a vehicle escorting a school van in the Shahbaz Town area on Wednesday afternoon.

The victims included a woman and a man who happened to be in the area at the time of the blast.

“A van of army’s EME Centre was attacked with a bomb detonated by remote control,” Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told Dawn.

The schoolchildren remained safe.

The banned Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for the attack which it said was against security personnel.

According to sources, two vehicles of the army’s EME Centre were escorting the van carrying children to the cantonment from a private school on Smungali Road.

The bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded near one of them at the Shahbaz Town roundabout.

Several vehicles caught fire because of the explosion and three soldiers were killed and five others injured.

Hospital sources said the condition of five of the injured was serious.

The school van and the other escorting vehicle were not affected.

The driver of the children’s van took an alternative route and sped away.

At least three private cars, several motorcycles, over a dozen shops, a mosque and several apartments were damaged by the explosion.

Abdul Salam adds from  Bannu: Three policemen, one of them an SHO, were killed and three Frontier Constabulary personnel injured in a terrorist attack on Wednesday.

SHO Apail Khan and constables Misbahuddin and Shahbaz were killed when two men attacked a police party going to Janikhel police station. The attackers, who were on motorcycles, later targeted FC personnel manning a nearby check-post. Three FC personnel -- Syed Mohammad, Shehram and Mohammad Rehman – were injured and taken to the Bannu district headquarters hospital.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack till late Wednesday.

Khalid Khan adds from Alpuri: A police constable was killed and an SHO was among the four people injured in a roadside blast on Wednesday in the Kankahar Kandao area of Shangla district, along the border of Turghar district.

Sources said SHO Kalimullah, ASI Amir Aslam and three constables were coming to the district headquarters, Alpuri, from Martoom police station. An improvised device went off when their vehicle reached Kankahar Kandao, some 80km from Alpuri.

The impact of the blast threw the vehicle into a 50-foot ravine, resulting in injuries to the SHO, ASI, driver Rashid Ali and constables Jehan Zeb and Riaz.

The injured were rushed to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Aloch Puran where Jehan Zeb succumbed to his injuries.