Pakistan: BLASTS AND AN EARTHQUAKE…WHAT A DAY!

Wednesday was yet another day of violence and panic in Pakistan as several bomb attacks in the country’s two most volatile provinces – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – and a 6.2 magnitude earthquake forced the people to roll out their prayer mats and seek divine mercy. The incessant pre-election violence has seen at least 11 bombings since Tuesday evening. Twenty-one people were injured when four bombs went off in Quetta and Peshawar on Wednesday, a day after a string of blasts killed 11 people and injured more than 70.

QUETTA BLASTS:

Two persons were injured when a bomb went off at New Jan Muhammad Road in the provincial capital of Balochistan in the evening, police officials said. Earlier in the day, 13 people, including two children, were injured in a blast near a hospital in Satellite Town area of the city. The bomb, attached to a bicycle left in the hospital's parking lot, was triggered by a remote control. The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital, where doctors described the condition of two persons as critical. Hours later, another bomb went off in the busy Saryab Road area. Two policemen were injured and a car was damaged by the blast. The bomb was fitted on a bicycle that was left near a police station. There have been seven 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 on Tuesday.

PESHAWAR BOMBINGS:

In Peshawar, four persons, including two women, were injured on Wednesday morning when a bomb went off in the congested Sirki Gate area. A house was damaged by the blast. At least two kilogrammes of explosives were used in the attack, police said. The bomb was planted in front of the house of Pakistan People's Party leader Muhammad Tariq, police said. In yet another incident, two bombs went off along a key road in Dera Ismail Khan district though there were no casualties. Israr Khan Gandapur, an independent candidate in next month's polls, had a narrow escape as his motorcade passed through the area shortly before the blasts. At Larkana in 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 on Wednesday but three blasts in Balochistan on Tuesday evening were claimed by the United Baloch Army which said that the bombings were aimed at disrupting polls in the restive province. - See more at: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/04/24/news/national/blasts-and-an-earthquake-what-a-day/#sthash.XFLbM6qt.dpuf