19 injured in blasts in Pakistani cities

Nineteen people were injured when three bombs went off in the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Peshawar today, a day after a series of bombings killed 10 people and injured more than 60.

Thirteen people, including two children, were injured in an explosion near a hospital in Satellite Town area of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. The bomb was attached to a bicycle that was left in the hospital's parking lot. The explosive device was triggered by remote control, police said.

The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital, where doctors described the condition of two persons as critical.

Within hours, another bomb went off in the busy Saryab Road area of Quetta. Two policemen were injured and a car was damaged by the blast.

There have been six bomb attacks in Quetta since last evening, including one carried out by a suicide bomber who was trying to target the minority Shia Hazara community.

Six persons, including a paramilitary trooper, were killed and over 40 injured in four bomb attacks yesterday.

In Peshawar, four persons, including two women, were injured when a bomb went off in the congested Sirki Gate area. A house was damaged by the blast. At least two kilograms of explosives were used in the attack, police officials said.

In yet another incident, two bombs went off along a key road in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province though there were no casualties.

Israr Khan Gandapur, an independent candidate in the upcoming general election, had a narrow escape as his motorcade passed through the area shortly before the blasts.
At Larkana in southern Sindh province, about 20 feet of a gas pipeline were destroyed by a bomb blast.

Gas supply to several towns and cities were cut off after the attack though there were no reports of casualties.

No group claimed responsibility for any of the attacks today. A suicide bomber yesterday detonated his explosives-laden truck in Quetta when he was stopped at a check post while driving towards Alamdar Road, a neighbourhood with a large Shia Hazara population. Six persons, including a Frontier Corps personnel, were killed in the attack.

The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.