Quetta Blast Death Toll Climbs to 75, 200 injured

Local Editor

The death toll in the Saturday blast in Quetta climbed to 74, after the bloody blast that took place in the populated Hazara Town in Quetta, an area dominated by Shiites. Also, 200 people, including women and children, have been left injured following the incident.
The bomb in a water tanker ripped through a crowded bazaar in Hazara town, an area dominated by Shiites on the outskirts of Quetta -- capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province -- at around 6:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Saturday.

"At least 75 people have been martyred and at least 200 more wounded, the death toll may rise. It was a remote-controlled bomb," said Wazir Khan Nasir, a senior police officer in Quetta. He said the dead included women and children.
While Nasir considered that "the Shiite community was the target," of the bombing, a spokesman for the banned extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The provincial capital has become a flashpoint for sectarian linked violence, where at least 93 people were killed in a series of bombing last month. A majority of the people killed in the Alamdar Road blasts on January 10 belonged to the Shia community of Quetta.

Source: Palestine Foundation Pakistan, edited by moqawama.org