QUETTA: A powerful bomb blast destroyed the shrine of a Sufi saint in Mastung, 52km from here, on Tuesday.

Police said that miscreants had planted explosives inside the shrine of Pir Sheikh Taqi in Kili Sheikhan on the outskirts of Mastung.

“A powerful blast at around 8.30am destroyed a major portion of the shrine,” police official Abdul Rauf Baraich said, adding that a time device had been used in the explosion.

The blast was so powerful that it rocked Mastung town.

A woman passing through the area was injured and taken to the Civil Hospital Mastung where she was admitted. The caretaker of the shrine was not present when the explosion occurred.

Sheikh Taqi, a Sufi saint of the 16th century, was also a poet who preached love and brotherhood through his teachings and poetry. His shrine is visited by devotees from different part of the country. Hundreds of people rushed to the shrine after the explosion.

No one has claimed responsibility for blowing up the shrine of Sheikh Taqi.

The people of Mastung have condemned the incident and called upon the government to ensure arrest of perpetrators of the crime.

This is the second incident of its kind in Balochistan. Earlier the shrine of Sufi poet Must Tawakali was torched in Kohlu district last year.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2014